U-M C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital ranked among nation’s best pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report

ANN ARBOR, MI – The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital ranks among the best pediatric hospitals in the nation and is the only children’s hospital in Michigan to make U.S. News & World Report’s first stand-alone “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” list.

C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital ranks 22 on the magazine’s list of the 30 best pediatric facilities in the United States. The 2007 “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” issue will be published in the magazine’s Sept. 3 issue, on newsstands Monday, Aug. 27, and is available today online at health.usnews.com/pediatrics.

“This ranking is national recognition of the tremendous work and outstanding patient care our faculty and staff provide here each day at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital,” says Valerie P. Castle, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatrics and the Ravitz Foundation Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the U-M Health System. “It’s truly an honor to be recognized among the nation’s top children’s hospitals, especially as we work to build a state-of-the-art new children’s hospital that has been designed to provide the best in care for generations to come.”

While in the past pediatric hospitals have been ranked based on reputation alone in the magazine’s annual “America’s Best Hospitals” issue, this expanded children’s hospital ranking is based not only on reputation, but also on data and statistics about hospital performance and quality of care. The improved methodology is weighted using a three part mix of reputation, death rate, and such care-related factors as volume, nursing care, advanced technology, and recognition by outside organizations.

The ranking further illustrates C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital strength in a range of national and state rankings, and exemplifies the work of its faculty and staff. Additionally in 2007, U.S. News & World Report ranked the U-M Hospitals & Health Centers 14th overall among “America’s Best Hospitals” and the U-M Medical School 10th overall among the nation’s 125 fully accredited medical schools.

Today’s announcement also builds further momentum for the U-M Health System’s successful fundraising campaign for the new $523 million C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital building project. Already UMHS has raised more than $50 million of its $75 million goal for the new facility, set to open in 2011.

With 1.1 million square feet, the facility will provide a new and larger home for specialty services not offered anywhere else in Michigan for newborns, children and pregnant women, such as the pediatric liver transplant program, the Level I Pediatric Trauma Program, the Pediatric and Adolescent Home Ventilator Program, the Craniofacial Anomalies Program, high-risk pregnancy services and specialty gynecological services.

Plans for the new children’s and women’s facility include16 pediatric operating rooms, four pediatric surgical procedure rooms, four Caesarean section suites, and 264 private inpatient beds upon opening, including 50 single room maternity care beds, with capacity for an additional 84 beds in the future.