America's Best Hospitals 2009 List OUT!

U.S. News & World Report has released its annual "honor roll" of America's best medical centers, and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore is at the top of the list for the 19th straight year.

The top 21 hospitals all earned high scores in at least six of 16 specialties, ranging from cancer and geriatric care to orthopaedics and urology.

Scores were based on both objective measures -- such as mortality rates, patient safety, and other care-related factors -- and subjective measures, such as reputation.

"I think these rankings are extremely meaningful to an extremely small number of patients, relatively speaking, who represent a very small piece of the patient population but whose need for a very high quality of care is extreme," Avery Comarow, the U.S. News & World Report statistician who compiled and analyzed the data, tells WebMD. "These rankings are not at all intended for those who need relatively routine procedures."

The 'Best Hospitals' for 2009

Hospitals are listed below by total points. Here are the 21 hospitals that made the magazine's honor roll (two are tied for 10th place):

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Cleveland Clinic
Massachusetts General, Boston
New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
University of California-San Francisco Medical Center
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle
UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Ann Arbor
Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Stanford, Calif.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.
New York University Medical Center
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn.
Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York
Methodist Hospital, Houston
Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus
Top Hospitals by Specialty

Here are the No. 1 hospitals in each specialty, according to U.S. News and World Report:

Cancer: M.D. Anderson Center, University of Texas, Houston
Diabetes and endocrine disorders: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
Digestive disorders: Mayo Clinic
Ear, nose, throat: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Geriatric care: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Gynecology: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
Heart and heart surgery: Cleveland Clinic
Kidney disorders: Brigham and Women's Hospital
Neurology and neurosurgery: Mayo Clinic
Ophthalmology: Bascon Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami
Orthopaedics: Mayo Clinic
Psychiatry: Massachusetts General, Boston
Rehabilitation: Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Respiratory disorders: National Jewish Hospital, Denver
Rheumatology: Johns Hopkins Hospital
Urology: Johns Hopkins Hospital