UAB ranked Alabama’s top hospital, among the best in US

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August 4, 2016

Dr. Selwyn Vickers, Senior VP, Medicine, and Dean, School of Medicine, talks to several medical students. (file)

U.S. News & World Report’s 2016-2017 Best Hospitals report ranks UAB Hospital No. 1 in Birmingham and Alabama, and nine UAB specialties are listed among the nation’s top 50, up from six specialties the previous year.

“We are proud to be one of the best hospitals in America, and located in Alabama,” said Health System CEO Will Ferniany. “UAB Medicine is something all people in Alabama should be proud of. We even have a bumper sticker that says ‘Our Nationally Ranked Team Wears Scrubs.’ While we are nationally ranked and internationally known, our faculty and staff never forget they are here to serve the people of Alabama with the best medical care possible.”

Rheumatology (11), Gynecology (16) and Nephrology (20) appeared in the nation’s top 20; Neurology and Neurosurgery (25), Pulmonology (29), and Ear, Nose and Throat (29) appeared in the top 30; and Cardiology and Heart Surgery (37) and Urology (47) rounded out UAB’s highest-ranked programs.

University Hospital exterior at night. (file)

The biggest jumps in rankings came from Ear, Nose and Throat and Diabetes and Endocrinology, which were ranked as high-performing last year and both leapt to top-30 national rankings this year.

Cardiology and Heart Surgery went unranked last year and appeared at 37 this year. Rehabilitation, Orthopedics, Cancer and Geriatrics all earned the high-performing designation.

Rankings like U.S. News & World Report’s are just one tool available to patients as they make informed decisions about their health care, Ferniany says. UAB Medicine recently launched another when it became the first care provider in Alabama to empower patients to publicly rate and review its physicians — a reliable source of verified and up-to-date information from actual patients in UAB’s Find a Provider directory.

The rating and reviews feature gives patients an alternative to third-party rating sites that often exist with little if any oversight and feature outdated, inaccurate and in some cases libelous information. At its launch, more than 81 percent of eligible UAB physicians had a posted rating of at least four stars on the five-star scale.