Tuesday, July 21, 2015

U.S. News & World Report names Cox South among best in state

Cox Medical Center South has been recognized as one of the best hospitals for 2015-16 in Missouri by U.S. News & World Report. The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals ranking, now in its 26th year, recognizes hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients.

Cox South is ranked as No. 5 in Missouri by U.S. News & World Report, recognized in southwest Missouri, and is rated high performing in the complex medical specialties category of pulmonology and for the care of adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure. High-performing hospitals exceeded expected national standards of care.

Cox South is the only Springfield hospital to be ranked in the top 5 in Missouri by U.S. News & World Report.


“We are delighted to be named on this prestigious national rankings list, now four years in a row,” says Steve Edwards, CoxHealth President and CEO. “U.S. News & World Report has been regarded as the public’s most trusted source for hospital ratings. To be considered the very best in our market and in the top 5 in our state is a reinforcement of the incredible hard work of thousands. We thank our physicians, staff and volunteers for their tireless dedication toward advancing medical care in the community we all love and call home.”


For 2015-16, U.S. News evaluated hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Less than 3 percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for Best Hospitals 2015-16 were nationally ranked in even one specialty.


“A Best Hospital has demonstrated expertise in treating the most challenging patients,” says Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “A hospital that emerged from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of.”


In rankings by state and metro area, U.S. News recognized hospitals that perform nearly at the level of their nationally ranked peers in one or more specialties, as well as hospitals that excel in multiple common procedures and conditions.


U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or extra risk because of age or multiple health problems. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, adequacy of nurse staffing and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.


The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. U.S. News used the same data, as well as the new Best Hospitals for Common Care ratings, first published in May, to produce the state and metro rankings.


The rankings are freely available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals 2016” guidebook, available in August from the U.S. News Store.