(photo by Erin O. Smith)
For the 20th consecutive year, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt has been recognized among the nation’s Best Children’s Hospitals in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings, and once again earned the distinction as the No. 1 pediatric hospital in Tennessee.
Monroe Carell has been recognized in the rankings every year since the list’s inception in 2007. The annual rankings serve as a trusted resource for families seeking specialized pediatric care, evaluating hospitals on a range of measures that include patient outcomes, clinical resources and patient safety.
In this year’s Best Children’s Hospitals report, Monroe Carell ranked in nine specialties: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology and GI surgery; neonatology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopaedics; pulmonology and lung surgery; and urology.
“Earning the distinction as a premier pediatric institution for two consecutive decades is truly an incredible honor and underscores our teams’ deep commitment to providing outstanding, high-quality care to the children and families who entrust us with their care,” said Jamie Phillips, MHA, FACHE, President of Monroe Carell. “Every day our physicians, surgeons, nurses, researchers and staff in every role come to work with a collective mission to improve the lives of children. We remain focused on advancing child health and delivering extraordinary care as a local, regional and national pediatric health care provider of choice for all children and families.”
Opened in 2004 as Middle Tennessee’s first freestanding pediatric hospital, Monroe Carell is equipped to meet the needs of every child, providing expert care from routine to complex conditions ranging from cancer and trauma to developmental disorders and heart disease. As part of an academic medical center at Vanderbilt Health, Monroe Carell physicians, surgeons and nurses are leading the way in innovation and research to advance new therapies and technologies that improve care outcomes beginning before birth and extending through childhood and beyond.
“This 20-year achievement is a truly remarkable testament to our teams’ unwavering dedication to clinical excellence, innovation and compassionate care for children and families across Tennessee and beyond,” said Juan C. Salazar, MD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, System Pediatrician-in-Chief and James C. Overall Professor of Pediatrics. “I am incredibly proud of and grateful to all our team members for an incredible year and their ongoing commitment to the important work we will continue to do together.”
The annual Best Children’s Hospitals report ranks the top 50 pediatric centers in 11 medical specialties. Scores are calculated using clinical data from 199 hospitals through a detailed survey that evaluates measures such as patient safety, infection prevention, adequacy of hospital resources and delivery of health care, including clinical care and outcomes. In addition, part of each hospital’s score is derived from reputational surveys of board-certified pediatric specialists. In the 2026-2027 report, 99 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty.
