Annual voting for U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings opens soon. This year’s reputation survey will be distributed to voting-eligible physicians in the 16 surveyed specialties through Doximity and by paper ballot sometime in February or early March.
According to U.S. News’ methodology, reputation accounts for 30 percent of each year’s “Best Hospitals” score. In recent years, the digital survey distributed through Doximity (www.doximity.com) has become the dominant mechanism to vote for the reputation score. Doximity distributes the digital survey to all physicians who are board certified in one of the 16 voting-eligible specialties measured by U.S. News (see below) and who registered on Doximity as of December 1, 2017.
Participating in the reputation survey is an important opportunity for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduates, former house staff and fellows to support Vanderbilt. The ranking not only impacts recruiting of faculty, students, residents and fellows, but also advances Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s prestige.
In addition to electronic voting through Doximity, U.S. News also mails a small number of paper ballots in each voting specialty. Anyone who is board certified in one of the 16 voting-eligible specialties but did not register on Doximity may receive one of the limited number of paper ballots mailed in February or March.
In addition to reputation, U.S. News evaluates a number of data-driven metrics to develop each year’s Best Hospitals rankings. These data-driven metrics include patient survival, patient safety, nurse staffing and the use of certain clinical technologies.
U.S. News Reputation Voting Specialties
- Cancer
- Cardiology and Heart Surgery
- Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology
- Geriatrics
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Nephrology
- Neurology and Neurological Surgery
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopedics
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonary Disease
- Rehabilitation
- Rheumatology
- Urology
