• Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt was again recognized as a leader in pediatric health care, earning the title as the No. 1 children’s hospital in Tennessee and sharing the top spot in the Southeast, according to the 2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals rankings.
This year’s report highlights the hospital’s national rankings in 10 of 11 pediatric specialty programs. For the fifth year in a row, Monroe Carell claimed the No. 1 position in the Southeast regional rankings, tying with two other hospitals.
• Vanderbilt University School of Medicine ranked fifth in the nation in fiscal year 2024 in total research grant support provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to figures compiled by the nonprofit Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.
The NIH is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. VUSM, which received $586 million in direct and indirect NIH grant support in fiscal year 2024, has been among the top 10 recipients of NIH funding among U.S. medical schools for nine of the past 15 years.
• For the second consecutive year, Vanderbilt Health’s Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery and Urology residency programs were both ranked No. 1 in the U.S. by reputation, according to the Doximity Residency Navigator.
The top placement for Urology marks its second consecutive year at No. 1 after breaking into the top spot in 2024, and Otolaryngology now has its first place ranking in five consecutive years.
• Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s audiology and speech-language pathology graduate programs are No. 1 in the country once again, according to 2025 Best Graduate Schools rankings published by U.S. News & World Report.
The Doctor of Audiology program topped the list of 74 contenders and the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program ranked above 282 others. Both disciplines have been previously ranked once every four years, with No. 1 status for audiology since 2004 and speech-language pathology since 2012. The rankings will be annual starting this year.
• Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt earned the distinction of being a Leapfrog Top Hospital for 2025, reaffirming the hospital’s leadership in safety and quality nationwide for the fourth year in a row. This year, Monroe Carell is one of only 15 children’s hospitals nationwide to receive the Top Hospitals designation.
• Vanderbilt Health has again been recognized for leadership in supply chain performance and innovation. Vanderbilt Health placed 19th in the Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 for 2025, released by Gartner Inc., a technology research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut. Vanderbilt Health moved up six slots from a 2024 ranking of 25th.
• Vanderbilt Health is one of two facilities in Tennessee recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as “hospitals and health systems with great oncology programs” for 2025.
• Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital was recognized among 12 top-performing hospitals in Tennessee by Becker’s Hospital Review for outstanding nursing communication based on results from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.
This national survey captures patient feedback on their inpatient experience, which plays a key role in shaping hospital rankings.
• Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of only 10 hospitals in Tennessee to receive a five-star cleanliness rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Hospital rankings are determined by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys, which collect patient feedback through standardized surveys based on the inpatient experience.
• Vanderbilt Health was ranked in the top 1% of sports medicine research hospitals in the United States by Avant-garde Health’s Healthcare Research All-Stars report. This recognition honors the quantity and quality of the sports medicine research authored and published by Vanderbilt physicians and researchers.
The Healthcare Research All-Stars lists are compiled by Avant-garde Health, a provider of solutions for improving perioperative quality and profitability, and include only the top 5% of hospitals and physicians publishing leading-edge research in sports medicine care.
• Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital earned its sixth consecutive “A” Hospital Safety Grade for spring 2025 from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit focused on patient safety.
Leapfrog assigns a safety grade from “A” to “F” to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 measures of errors, accidents, injuries and infections as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent them. This straight “A” designation honors the hospital for its continued preventive measures taken against harm.
