Oregon Health & Science University Hospital ranks No. 1 in the Portland metro area, as well as statewide, according to U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013-14. The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in their 24th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients.

“OHSU’s health care is recognized nationally because of the dedication of our faculty and staff, who work collaboratively to deliver excellence, respect and results to our patients each and every day,” said Peter Rapp, OHSU’s executive vice president and executive director of OHSU Healthcare. “Despite high rankings, OHSU is always committed to new ways to advance medicine and improve our patients' quality of life.”

U.S. News evaluates hospitals in 16 adult specialties. In most specialties, it ranks the nation’s top 50 hospitals and recognizes other high-performing hospitals that provide care at nearly the level of their nationally ranked peers.

This year, five OHSU specialties rank among the nation’s top 50:

• Cancer (#49)
• Diabetes & Endocrinology (#42)
• Geriatrics (#32)
• Gynecology (#44)
• Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery (Ear, Nose & Throat) (#24)

About 15 percent of all hospitals are recognized for their high performance in their region and just 3 percent of all hospitals earn a national ranking in any specialty, the news magazine reports.

Additionally, seven of OHSU Hospital’s adult specialties were ranked “high-performing”:

• Cardiology & Heart Surgery
• Gastroenterology
• Nephrology
• Neurology & Neurosurgery
• Orthopedics
• Pulmonology
• Urology

In addition to adult specialty rankings, U.S. News ranks children’s hospitals, and last month they announced OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital ranks among the nation’s top 50 children’s hospitals in eight of 10 pediatric specialties for 2013-14.

U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, the adequacy of nurse staffing levels and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings.