With all of the pressures and headaches that come with living in possibly the most fast-paced city in the world, New Yorkers can take comfort in the fact that we have the nation’s top hospitals available to us to keep us on the move and healthy.
According to U.S. News & World Report, which ranked more than 4,700 hospitals in the country, New York City has three hospitals which rank in the top 17 across the nation: New York-Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia and Cornell came in at number six, and NYU Langone Medical Center and Mount Sinai Medical Center ranked 15 and 16, respectively.
In addition to the overall performance of these medical centers, New York City also ranked quite high in medical specialties. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center ranked number one in cancer and The Hospital for Special Surgery came in at number one in orthopedics. In total, 50 of the 180 New York metropolitan area hospitals were deemed excellent in one or more specialties.
Some municipal hospitals took top honors in specialties as well. Harlem Hospital and Bellevue were recognized for their excellence in nephrology (the branch of medicine that deals with the physiology and diseases of the kidneys).
This news is not a surprise to many native New Yorkers who realize that not every city has such quality medical care available. Patricia Daniels, a Windsor Terrace native who has since transplanted to Edison, N.J. and is a 10-year breast cancer survivor, says that when she was first diagnosed, she knew immediately she would make the regular trek to Memorial Sloan Kettering for treatment, and she credits her long-term recovery with the doctors there.
“My doctors at Sloan were wonderful,” said Daniels. “They were very thorough and truly caring through chemo[therapy] treatments. I still see them now for regular visits.”
Daniels also had a knee replacement performed at The Hospital For Special Surgery and says she had a great experience during that operation and hospital stay, as well.
Many parents and families rely on the quality medical care offered in New York. Mariel Gomez of Brooklyn Heights says she and her husband often considered leaving the city to move to a slow-paced farm or rural town in middle America before they had children, but after having their son who suffers from autism, they realized that he is receiving the very best medical care (and education) right here in New York City.
When asked if the news of New York City’s top performing hospitals surprised her, Gomez said, “Absolutely not.” She also said she would not consider raising her son in any other city, “Why would I go anywhere else, when we have the best treatments and doctors right outside our door?”
Danielle Sullivan, a mom of three, has worked as a writer and editor in the parenting world for more than 10 years. Sullivan also writes about pets and parenting for Disney’s Babble.com. Find Sullivan on her blogs, Just Write Mom and Some Puppy To Love.
