US News and World Report has ranked hospitals across the United States on a variety of factors. Some factors are general in nature, such as death rates, advanced equipment and patient questionnaires. These general rankings provide sufficient information for most patients, since most injuries and illnesses are fairly common.

US News also ranked hospitals in a variety of specialties. Some patients require procedures that are very specialized in nature. A hospital must perform enough procedures in these specialties, and do them well, to be ranking highly in that specialty. Of the 4,825 hospitals evaluated, only 140 performed well enough to rank in one or more specialties.
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