Baptist ranked top S. Fla. hospital

Reclaims spot from Cleveland Clinic

Baptist Hospital in Miami is once again South Florida’s “best hospital,” according to U.S. News & World Report’s coveted rankings, released Tuesday.

Cleveland Clinic Florida, last year’s top-ranked hospital, fell to the No. 2 spot in the region that includes Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. It is followed by Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale.

Rounding out the top 10 list were 4. University of Miami Hospital, Miami; 5. Memorial Regional Hospital, Hollywood; 6. [tie]. Boca Raton Regional Hospital; 6 [tie]. South Miami Hospital; 6 [tie]. West Kendall Baptist Hospital; 9 [tie]. Bethesda Hospital East, Boynton Beach; 9 [tie] Homestead Hospital; 9 [tie] Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach.

The magazine compiles its annual hospital rankings for the nation, all 50 states, and the nation’s top metro areas by evaluating more than 4,500 medical centers across 25 specialties and factors such as survival, patient safety and nurse staffing. The regional rankings were created in 2011 to provide consumers who want to receive care close to home an assessment of their region’s hospitals across multiple areas of care.

Baptist Health, parent organization of four of the hospitals in the top 10, is “very proud” of the recognition, according to a statement by Brian E. Keeley, the organization’s president and chief executive officer. “To be honored among the best hospitals locally and in the nation validates that we are meeting and surpassing the high standards we set for our organization and that results in great patient care.”

With 720 beds and 2,290 doctors, Baptist Hospital was recognized as “high performing” in eight procedures or conditions: abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, colon cancer surgery, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, hip replacement, knee replacement and lung cancer surgery.

It performed “nearly at the level of nationally ranked” U.S. News best hospitals in five adult specialties, according to the magazine.

Weston-based Cleveland Clinic Florida, with 155 beds and 326 doctors, was nationally ranked for gastroenterology and GI surgery [42nd], and orthopedics [31st], and rated high performing in chronic