Best of the best

Here’s how Houston’s hospitals fared in the latest rankings from U.S. News & World Report

›› Todd Ackerman has covered medicine for the Houston Chronicle since 2001. Find more of his work here: HoustonChronicle.com/author/todd-ackerman/

M D Anderson Cancer Center retained its status as the best cancer hospital, TIRR Memorial Hermann again ranked as the second best for rehabilitative care and the Menninger Clinic moved up to the third best for psychiatric care.

Those are the Houston highlights in U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey of the nation’s best hospitals, released Tuesday.

Houston Methodist dropped out of the Honor Roll it made last year but ranked as Texas’ No. 1 comprehensive hospital for the sixth straight year. It was followed by the University of Southwest Medical Center and Baylor University Medical Center, both in Dallas, as

the state’s No. 2 and 3 best hospitals, respectively. Houston’s Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center was 4th and Memorial Hermann 5th, the reverse of their rankings last year.

The survey, the magazine’s 28th, compares more than 4,500 hospitals and medical centers nationwide in 25 specialties. It often is criticized as a popularity contest but remains hugely influential, touted by hospitals that fare well and downplayed by those that do not.

MD Anderson’s No. 1

ranking is its 10th in the last 11 years. It never has finished worse than No. 2 in the survey, perennially battling Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

TIRR’s No. 2 ranking is its fourth straight, and Menninger, which moved from Kansas to Houston in 2003, moved up from No. 5 last year. Both institutions have ranked in the survey all 28 years.

Methodist had eight specialties ranked in the top 50, the most of any hospital in Texas. Overall, it ranked 24th among the nation’s hospitals surveyed, just outside the 20 selected for the magazine’s Honor Roll. Methodist made the honor roll in 2009 and 2017.

St. Luke’s and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center both ranked in two specialties. St. Luke’s Texas Heart Institute, which has dropped precipitously in recent years, improved from 38 to 24.

Atop the Honor Roll, in order, are the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The magazine’s pediatric hospital survey came out last month. Texas Children’s ranked fourth.