More than 15 years after U.S. News & World Report started ranking the nation’s children’s hospitals by the specialty services they offer — hoping to give parents more information about care options for their kids — the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital this year achieved a top-50 ranking in nine of 11 categories.
That rates 2024 among its best-ever showings, topped only by 2012 — when the UI Children’s Hospital earned a top-50 spot in 10 of 10 U.S. News specialties. In the years that followed, its number of nationally-ranked specialties ebbed to seven in 2013 and 2014, six, and later five in 2020 and 2021.
Last year, the university’s 205-bed pediatric hospital earned top-50 placement in six specialties — adding three more this year, including pediatric cancer at No. 41, pediatric cardiology and heart surgery at No. 47, and pediatric behavioral health, a new specialty in the rankings.
U.S. News didn’t rank hospitals in that behavioral health category, instead listing those earning top-50 distinction alphabetically. Across the six specialties in which the UI Children’s Hospital ranked both last year and this year, three made meaningful gains, one held steady, and two lost ground.
The two specialties in which the UI Children’s Hospital didn’t rank were gastroenterology and GI surgery, along with pulmonology and lung surgery.
“Our long-standing leadership in pediatrics is a testament to the world-class team we have and their unwavering dedication to excellence in the care we provide,” Jim Leste, chief administrative officer of Stead Family Children’s Hospital, said in a statement.
Leste over the summer was named head of the Children’s Hospital — officially starting July 29 — after years of turnover and interim leadership dating back to former executive director Scott Turner’s departure in November 2017.
That was the year the University of Iowa debuted its new 14-story Children’s Hospital — a project that cost more than $400 million, given rampant delays, design changes and mismanagement.
For this year’s U.S. News Children’s Hospital rankings, 198 hospitals were deemed eligible and 108 — or 55 percent — submitted sufficient data to be considered. Of those, 88 were ranked in at least one of the 11 pediatric specialties.
The scores that determine the rankings are comprised of three components: structure, referring to hospital resources; process, encompassing diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and education efforts; and outcomes, looking at survival and other functional success rates.
Each component accounted for one-third of the score for most specialties — except heart surgery, which gave more weight to outcomes, and behavioral health, which gave less weight to outcomes.
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“To be named in the inaugural year of a behavioral health ranking, especially when we’re seeing a greater need for these types of services, makes it clear that our care makes a difference in the lives of young Iowans,” Leste said.
The UI Children’s Hospital, despite its fluctuation, has been ranked every year since U.S. News broke out its children’s rankings from its main hospital rankings in 2007. For its first time rating 10 Children’s Hospital specialties in 2009, the University of Iowa ranked in the top 30 in just one area: kidney disorders.
“There are some things that we know for sure in health care,” said Alexander Bassuk, physician-in-chief of the UI Children’s Hospital and chair and departmental executive officer of the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics in the UI Carver College of Medicine.
“Patients want compassionate care that’s close to home. Professionals want to work somewhere where they can make a difference in patients' lives and medicine,” he said. “These rankings show that UI Health Care continues to achieve its mission of changing medicine and changing lives.
“Our continued ranking with U.S. News is a point of pride for us.”
The UI Children’s Hospital ranked first in the State of Iowa and 11th in the Midwest region — which includes 13 states from the Dakotas on the west to Ohio on the east. Within that region, hospitals in Ohio claimed four of the top six spots — including Cincinnati Children’s at No. 1 and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus at No. 2.
Nationally, the top 10 include both those Ohio hospitals along with children’s hospitals in Boston, Colorado, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Washington state, San Diego, and Houston.
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That rates 2024 among its best-ever showings, topped only by 2012 — when the UI Children’s Hospital earned a top-50 spot in 10 of 10 U.S. News specialties. In the years that followed, its number of nationally-ranked specialties ebbed to seven in 2013 and 2014, six, and later five in 2020 and 2021.
Last year, the university’s 205-bed pediatric hospital earned top-50 placement in six specialties — adding three more this year, including pediatric cancer at No. 41, pediatric cardiology and heart surgery at No. 47, and pediatric behavioral health, a new specialty in the rankings.
U.S. News didn’t rank hospitals in that behavioral health category, instead listing those earning top-50 distinction alphabetically. Across the six specialties in which the UI Children’s Hospital ranked both last year and this year, three made meaningful gains, one held steady, and two lost ground.
- Neonatology stayed put at No. 21;
- Pediatric diabetes and endocrinology dropped two spots to No. 25;
- Pediatric nephrology jumped 10 spots to No. 32;
- Pediatric urology moved up 14 places to No. 34;
- Pediatric neurology and neurosurgery improved seven ranks to No. 40;
- Pediatric cancer moved into the top 50 at No. 41;
- Pediatric cardiology and heart surgery also slipped into the top 50 at No. 47;
- Pediatric orthopedics dropped 22 spots to No. 50;
- And pediatric behavioral health made the ranked list.
The two specialties in which the UI Children’s Hospital didn’t rank were gastroenterology and GI surgery, along with pulmonology and lung surgery.
“Our long-standing leadership in pediatrics is a testament to the world-class team we have and their unwavering dedication to excellence in the care we provide,” Jim Leste, chief administrative officer of Stead Family Children’s Hospital, said in a statement.
Leste over the summer was named head of the Children’s Hospital — officially starting July 29 — after years of turnover and interim leadership dating back to former executive director Scott Turner’s departure in November 2017.
That was the year the University of Iowa debuted its new 14-story Children’s Hospital — a project that cost more than $400 million, given rampant delays, design changes and mismanagement.
‘A point of pride for us’
For this year’s U.S. News Children’s Hospital rankings, 198 hospitals were deemed eligible and 108 — or 55 percent — submitted sufficient data to be considered. Of those, 88 were ranked in at least one of the 11 pediatric specialties.
The scores that determine the rankings are comprised of three components: structure, referring to hospital resources; process, encompassing diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and education efforts; and outcomes, looking at survival and other functional success rates.
Each component accounted for one-third of the score for most specialties — except heart surgery, which gave more weight to outcomes, and behavioral health, which gave less weight to outcomes.
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“To be named in the inaugural year of a behavioral health ranking, especially when we’re seeing a greater need for these types of services, makes it clear that our care makes a difference in the lives of young Iowans,” Leste said.
The UI Children’s Hospital, despite its fluctuation, has been ranked every year since U.S. News broke out its children’s rankings from its main hospital rankings in 2007. For its first time rating 10 Children’s Hospital specialties in 2009, the University of Iowa ranked in the top 30 in just one area: kidney disorders.
“There are some things that we know for sure in health care,” said Alexander Bassuk, physician-in-chief of the UI Children’s Hospital and chair and departmental executive officer of the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics in the UI Carver College of Medicine.
“Patients want compassionate care that’s close to home. Professionals want to work somewhere where they can make a difference in patients' lives and medicine,” he said. “These rankings show that UI Health Care continues to achieve its mission of changing medicine and changing lives.
“Our continued ranking with U.S. News is a point of pride for us.”
The UI Children’s Hospital ranked first in the State of Iowa and 11th in the Midwest region — which includes 13 states from the Dakotas on the west to Ohio on the east. Within that region, hospitals in Ohio claimed four of the top six spots — including Cincinnati Children’s at No. 1 and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus at No. 2.
Nationally, the top 10 include both those Ohio hospitals along with children’s hospitals in Boston, Colorado, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Washington state, San Diego, and Houston.
UI Children’s Hospital makes top 50 in 9 of 11 specialties
More than 15 years after U.S. News & World Report started ranking the nation’s children’s hospitals by the specialty services they offer, the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital this year achieved a top-50 ranking in nine of 11 categories.
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