U.S. News & World Report will implement significant methodology updates to its Best Hospitals adult specialty rankings, set to take effect in the next edition of the rankings in the third quarter of 2026.
According to a Dec. 4 post on Second Opinion, a blog from U.S. News editors and contributors, the changes are part of a broader effort to prioritize patient-centered outcomes and experiences while reducing the influence of structural data points that may carry less weight for patients making care decisions.
Three major changes outlined in the update:
1. More weight on patient outcomes and experience: The updated methodology will place greater emphasis on risk-adjusted outcomes such as survival rates, discharges to home and avoidance of procedural complications. U.S. News also plans to add a new measure reflecting patient feedback on nursing communication, drawn from HCAHPS survey data.
2. Removal of AHA survey-derived measures: The rankings will no longer include certain data previously pulled from the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey Database. This includes metrics for nurse staffing levels, ICU specialist availability, patient services and advanced technologies.
3. New approach to evaluating nursing care: A measure of patient-reported nurse communication will fully replace the existing nurse staffing metric in both the adult specialty rankings and Procedures & Conditions ratings. The previous measure focused on staffing ratios, while the new one is designed to more directly capture the quality of nursing care based on patient experience.
