Named the #1 hospital in the country for nine years in a row in the U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of American hospitals, The Johns Hopkins Hospital continues to attract the kinds of physicians who make innovation possible.

The survey reports a hospital's reputation in 16 medical specialties among a national sample of 2400 Board-certified specialist physicians, along with analysis of objective indicators derived from government data on death rates, technology, staffing, facilities, outpatient and community services, and discharge planning. Conducted by the magazine in conjunction with reputable outside organizations, the analysis and survey have been modified every year to refine the categories and invest them with more reliable criteria. Most recently, the magazine ranked 188 qualifying hospitals, up from 132 the prior year, and placed 13 on its "Honor Roll."

To make the U.S. News Honor Roll, a hospital had to attain a high competency score in at least six of the 16 specialties. Listed hospitals scored two or more standard deviations above the mean on the magazine's index and extra points were awarded for ranking above two standard deviations. Rounding out the Honor Roll behind Hopkins were: Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, Duke University Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, University of Michigan Medical Center, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, New York Presbyterian, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Presbyterian and University of Chicago Hospitals.

About Johns Hopkins

Over a century ago, the Quaker merchant Johns Hopkins did more than provide in his will for the construction of a university, a hospital and a medical school. In the midst of a medical profession in chaos, he provided a vision of a unique university-based health center, one with a vital new mission: to create a learning, training and caring environment where the quest for new knowledge would continuously yield more effective and more compassionate care for all.

The founding physicians of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine created a revolutionary new medical curriculum that for the first time integrated a rigorous program of basic science education with intensive clinical mentoring. The original faculty, including such pioneers of modern medicine as William Osler, William S. Halsted, Howard A. Kelly and William H. Welch, created a curriculum designed not just to impart knowledge, but to create it. The "Hopkins Model", as it came to be known, soon was adopted by virtually every medical school in the country.

Today, after a century of progress that even its founder could not have envisioned, the quest for new knowledge leading to better health care remains the defining mission of Johns Hopkins Medicine.