J.C. Derrick
UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital earned top honors as Florida’s No. 1 pediatric medical center by U.S. News & World Report on Tuesday.
According to a UF Health release, the U.S. News 2022-23 Best Children’s Hospital survey, UF’s children’s hospital earned elite distinction in five pediatric specialties being among the nation’s best.
UF’s children’s hospital received its highest-ever rankings for pediatric pulmonology and lung surgery, listed as the 18th best in the United States, and neurology and neurosurgery, ranked No. 34.
The report also listed three other pediatric specialties that were nationally recognized: diabetes and endocrinology (No. 13), cardiology and heart surgery (No. 26) and cancer (No. 49).
Cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, and pulmonology and lung surgery are the highest-ranked children’s programs in Florida.
“I’m proud of everyone on our team who contributes to making UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital the best in Florida,” Dr. David R. Nelson, president of UF Health, said in a statement. “This ranking is a reflection of the culture of compassion and commitment to excellence that pervades everything we do.”
The UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital was ranked the eighth-best in the nine-state Southeast region and the hospital is tied for first in Florida with the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando and the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.
“Receiving this external validation at a time of a pandemic is gratifying,” UF Health Shands CEO Ed Jimenez said in a statement. “But at the same time sobering because it’s a reminder that while the pandemic has been front and center, every day, our teams have still had to face the task of treating kids with cancer, kids with devastating injuries, kids born with heart ailments. And every day our people deliver greatness. I am so proud of them. And quite honestly, just in awe of their greatness.”
According to the report, the U.S. News Best Children’s Hospital rankings are compiled from clinical data and a reputational survey of 15,000 pediatric specialists across the country who are asked where they would send the sickest children in a variety of specialties. Among the measures U.S. News uses to calculate rankings are patient safety, infection prevention and adequacy of nursing staff.
This year, U.S. News also has included a novel measure of a hospital’s equity, diversity and inclusion in its analysis.
This past year, UF received a No. 5 ranking in the most recent U.S. News and World Report’s list of public universities, along with being recognized with the No. 1 online bachelor’s degree program (UF Online) and having the state’s top-ranked medical school.