When hope and help are two things you or a loved one need most, it's time to get serious. Cancer patients need all the help they can get, and finding the best hospital becomes top priority.
Defining "the best" isn't easy. Various hospitals have different specialties within the oncology field. However, overall, here are three of your best options, in different parts of the country.
Johns Hopkins University Hospital
Although this year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, as No. 3 in the country, it has consistently held a top-three ranking for decades.
Besides being a National Cancer Institute-ranked Comprehensive Cancer Center, Hopkins is a research and teaching hospital with both federal and private money funding clinical trials. For a patient with few options left, clinical trials using new and experimental drugs, procedures and treatments may be the last, and only hope.
Hopkins also has a high nurse-to-patient ratio, highly rated patient services, high customer satisfaction, high standard of advanced technology and most assuringly, a low mortality rating.
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, is not only the best in the west, but according to U.S. News & World Report, it's the best in the country. Specializing not just in adult oncology, but also in pediatrics, Anderson has the highest ranked reputation among the medical community.
Like Hopkins, it's an NCI rated Comprehensive and conducts the latest clinical trials. More importantly, U.S. News & World Report gave it a 100 percent score for its quality and patient care. And like Hopkins, Anderson also boasts a low mortality rate.
Mayo Clinic and Others
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is famous in many specialities. Lucky for Midwesterners, it's ranked fourth in the country for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report. Of the hospitals outlined here, it has the highest nurse staffing rating, and perfect scores on patient care services and level of advanced technologies. Mayo Clinic conducts clinical trials, is NCI recognized and has a low mortality score.
However, these aren't the only great choices. In the West, University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and Stanford Hospitals and Clinics in Stanford, California, all rank in the top 10. In the East, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ranks No. 2 two in the nation. Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General, both in Boston, follow shortly thereafter.
Tags: Cancer Center, clinical trials, , News World Report, World Report, Mayo Clinic