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The latest "Best Hospitals" rankings from U.S. News & World Report are out, along with on how the rating system was changed following controversy.

U.S. News jettisoned ordinal rankings from the annual, top-performing Honor Roll last year, including those for hospitals and medical schools, amid pushback regarding several of the outlet's rankings.

Changes in 2024 include adding Medicare Advantage data in the rankings' outcome analysis, to address a "national trend toward utilization of commercial insurance plans," Ben Harder, U.S. News managing editor and chief of health analysis, and Min Hee Seo, PhD, senior health data scientist, wrote in a May .

Beginning with this year's rankings, "hospitals in 11 adult specialties will be evaluated not only on the outcomes they achieve for traditional Medicare beneficiaries but also their risk-adjusted mortality rates in patients insured by Medicare Advantage (MA) plans," they noted.

Other changes include adding outpatient outcomes in more specialty rankings and surgical ratings; refining the identification of interhospital transfers; and creating a single, combined gynecological cancer surgery rating, U.S. News stated. It also added recognition for equitable access.

For the 2024-2025 rankings, U.S. News compared more than 4,500 hospitals across 15 specialties, and 20 procedures and conditions. Included data came from CMS, the American Hospital Association, professional organizations, and medical specialists. Procedures and conditions ratings were based entirely on patient care measures.

"Choosing the right hospital to match your needs shouldn't be a guessing game," Harder stated in announcing this year's rankings. "The 2024-2025 edition of Best Hospitals provides patients and their families clear, data-driven insights on hospital performance and empowers Americans to choose the facility best suited to their specific health care needs."

Public access to information that can help patients find high-quality care is one thing that U.S. News has continued to stress -- even amid certain criticism of its rankings.

This year, just 160 facilities nationwide earned a "Best Hospitals" ranking, U.S. News stated. There were 466 facilities that earned recognition as "Best Regional Hospitals," and fewer than half (n=1,797) earned any "High Performing" rating across procedures and conditions.

As for the Honor Roll, which is made up of facilities that have "excelled in providing high quality medical care," 20 hospitals made the cut, the outlet stated.

The latest iteration was in line with the 2023 list with the hospitals listed in alphabetical order. One newcomer to this year's list was Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, U.S. News noted.

This year's Honor Roll is listed below; full rankings, including for specialties as well as regions, are .

Best Hospitals Honor Roll 2024-2025

Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles

Cleveland Clinic

Duke University Hospital, Durham, N.C.

Hospitals of the U. of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia

Houston Methodist Hospital

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

Mayo Clinic-Arizona, Phoenix

Mayo Clinic-Rochester, Minnesota

Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City

New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York City

North Shore University Hospital at Northwell Health, Manhasset, New York

Northwestern Medicine-Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago

NYU Langone Hospitals, New York City

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago

Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California

UC San Diego Health-La Jolla and Hillcrest Hospitals

UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles

UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco

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