The 20 Highest-Ranked Hospitals in America in 2026

The Northeast and West are home to the best care you will find anywhere, according to U.S. News & World Report’s latest Best Hospitals rankings.

The two regions of the United States take more than half of the spots in the publication’s rankings of the nation’s best hospitals.

At the other extreme, the South has just two hospitals that made the roll call.

U.S. News has compiled its annual rankings for more than 30 years. It evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals to rank them on patient outcomes associated with 23 different procedures, which include:

• Knee replacement
• Heart bypass surgery
• Gynecological cancer surgery

U.S. News also ranks hospitals in 14 areas of complex specialty care.

In addition to looking at patient outcomes, U.S. News also weighs other important factors for patients, such as the adequacy of staffing at a hospital and the overall quality of a patient’s experience.

The ‘best of the best’ hospitals

Of the hospitals included in U.S. News’ analysis, 20 made what the publication calls its “Best Hospitals Honor Roll.” U.S. News says these are the best hospitals. They are listed in alphabetical order:

1. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
2. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
3. Cleveland Clinic, Ohio
4. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
5. Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas
6. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
7. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
8. Mayo Clinic-Arizona, Phoenix
9. Mayo Clinic-Florida, Jacksonville
10. Mayo Clinic-Rochester, Minnesota
11. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City
12. New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York City
13. Northwestern Medicine-Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
14. NYU Langone Hospitals, New York City
15. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
16. Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California
17. UC San Diego Health-La Jolla, Hillcrest, and East Campus Medical Centers, La Jolla, California
18. UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Los Angeles
19. UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
20. University of Michigan Health-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan

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The best specialty hospitals

U.S. News also ranked hospitals in each of 14 medical specialties.

Overall, just 178 out of nearly 4,500 hospitals ranked in at least one of the specialties. The No. 1 hospital for each specialty is:

1. Cancer: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
2. Cardiology, heart and vascular surgery: NYU Langone Hospitals, New York City
3. Diabetes and endocrinology: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
4. Gastroenterology and GI surgery: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
5. Geriatrics: UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
6. Neurology and neurosurgery: NYU Langone Hospitals, New York City
7. Obstetrics and gynecology: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
8. Ophthalmology: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Hospital and Clinics, Miami
9. Orthopedics: Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City
10. Psychiatry: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
11. Pulmonology and lung surgery: UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
12. Rehabilitation: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago
13. Rheumatology: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
14. Urology: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City