What Makes The Best Children’s and Pediatric Hospitals

What Makes The Best Children’s and Pediatric Hospitals

We are excited to announce our list of The Best Children’s Hospitals who all have won the Women’s Choice Award! In sharing this information we also wanted to share what the methodology was behind it. The award criteria looks at 5 different facility areas to determine which hospital is eligible for the Women’s Choice Award.  These areas are the best in: Pediatric Services, Technology and Family Resources, Board Certified Staff, Nurses and Support Staff and the facility’s Commitment to Quality. The determination of the Best Children’s Hospitals was based on:

  • Family Centered Care
  • Family sleeping/living accommodations
  • Dedicated pediatric emergency department
  • Pediatric ICU
  • Neonatal ICU
  • Child Life specialists
  • Use of telehealth technologies
  • Participation in pediatric health research
  • Accreditation by the Joint Commission
  • Pediatric Trauma Center accreditation

Each of the above contributes five points to the hospital’s score, with the exception of NICU, which earns five points for a Level IV and two points for a Level III. A maximum of 50 points can be earned for these services. We also assign points for hospital staffing based on the number of beds per board certified pediatric professional in the following specialties: Anesthesiology

  • Anesthesiology Radiology
  • Orthopedics
  • Cardiology
  • Endocrinology
  • Pulmonology
  • Nephrology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Urology
  • Neurology
  • Oncology
  • Neonatology

Points of 0 to 5 are assigned based on the relative number of beds per physician, with those having the least average beds scoring the most points. Each of the results was also weighted based on the average beds per physician for all the reporting hospitals, e.g. cardiology staffing was given twice times the weight of radiology staffing because the average number of beds per cardiology staff was 22 versus 52 for radiology.  We assigned up to six additional points for high levels of other professional, nursing and support staff. For those hospitals that did not submit new data for this year’s review, we used data submitted in 2016. We compared the point totals for all the hospitals and awarded those that scored above a point of discontinuity, where points declined rapidly. The Women’s Choice Award for Best Children’s Hospitals was given to 65 children’s hospitals that met our criteria, providing comprehensive services and highly qualified professionals in a wide variety of specialties. Additionally, if a children’s hospital earned the Best Children’s Hospital award, they can also earn the Best Children’s Emergency Care award if they have all three of the following:

  • Dedicated pediatric emergency department
  • Pediatric intensive care unit (ICU)
  • Pediatric Trauma Center accreditation
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