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U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings, today released the 2019-20 Best Hospitals rankings. The new and revised 30th edition provides a multifaceted assessment on nearly every hospital nationwide that is designed to assist patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to seek care. This year, U.S. News updated the methodology in its 12 data-driven specialty rankings. (7/30)

The U.S. News Best Hospitals analysis reviews hospitals' performance in adult and pediatric clinical specialties, procedures and conditions. Scores are based on several factors, including survival, patient safety, nurse staffing and more. Hospitals are ranked nationally in specialties from cancer to urology and rated in common procedures and conditions, such as heart bypass surgery, hip and knee replacement and COPD. Hospitals are also ranked regionally within states and major metro areas. The Best Hospitals Honor Roll recognizes 21 hospitals with outstanding performance across multiple areas of care. The Best Children's Hospital Honor Roll recognizes 10 hospitals with superior pediatric care. (7/30)

The Cleveland Clinic took the fourth-place spot overall in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals ratings, and earned the top nationwide ranking in cardiology and heart surgery for the 25th consecutive year. “Year after year, for 21 years, we’ve been ranked in the top five. It goes up and down as the methodology changes,” said Dr. Herbert Wiedemann, who was named chief of staff for the Clinic last year. “We’re delighted to be ranked so consistently as one of the top hospitals in the country.” (Christ, 7/30)

Like a student whose test score is disqualified, storied UC Berkeley — among the highest-ranking universities in the nation — has been kicked off the 2019 college rankings by U.S. News & World Report, whose listings are relied on by high school students everywhere to decide where to apply. (Asimov, 7/28)

UC Berkeley, Scripps College, Mars Hill University, the University of North Carolina–Pembroke and Johnson & Wales University all misreported statistics, resulting in their rankings being higher than they should have been, U.S. News said. The five schools have now been moved to an "unranked" category. U.S. News said the schools will keep this "unranked" status until the publication of next year's Best Colleges list, if the schools confirm the accuracy of their data submission. (O'Kane, 7/29)

Looks like Boston Children’s Hospital isn’t the only local medical center that’s tops in the nation this year. US News & World Report today released its annual list of the 20 best hospitals in the United States, and two from Boston made the cut: Massachusetts General Hospital was ranked second overall in the nation, while Brigham and Women’s ranked 13th. The top-rated hospital this year, according to US News, was the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. (Reiss, 7/30)

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is on a winning streak with U.S. News & World Report, which has again ranked the Chicago hospital as the best in Illinois and, this year, as one of the top 10 in the country. Northwestern was the only Illinois hospital to earn a spot on the publication’s national top 20 list. It is the eighth consecutive year Northwestern has taken the No. 1 spot in Illinois. (Schencker, 7/29)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is one of the top hospitals nationally in five specialties, and it and a dozen other Tennessee hospitals are "high performing" in several areas, according to a report released Tuesday. Vanderbilt was the only Tennessee hospital to be nationally ranked by number in U.S. News and World Report's 2019-2020 Best Hospitals Rankings. It ranked No. 9 in the nation for nephrology; No. 18 for urology; No. 20 for ear, nose and throat; No. 35 for cardiology and heart surgery; and No. 38 for pulmonology and lung surgery. (Nelson, 7/30)

Three Southwest Florida hospitals have received top scores in the newest hospital rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Lee Memorial Hospital in Lee County and NCH Baker Hospital Downtown in Collier County are jointly ranked 14 among “best hospitals” in Florida, according to the news magazine that has been ranking hospitals for 30 years.Gulf Coast Medical Center in Lee is ranked 21 in Florida out of 40 hospitals ranked, data shows. Lee Memorial and Gulf Coast are owned by the publicly operated Lee Health system. (Freeman, 7/30)

Let’s get right to what most people want to know: Which are the top-ranked hospitals in Pennsylvania and where does their local hospital rank? But be sure to continuing reading to see the two Pennsylvania hospitals ranked among the very best in the United States, and to learn more about what the rankings are based on. (Wenner, 7/30)