"You'll never wonder if you could have done more."

Is the Glass Half Full or Is It Half Empty?

"Our future looks incredibly bright, and these rankings provide us with even more incentive to keep raising [the] bar," she [Kathie Taranto] said.


Mr. B. has previously posted on the local medical arms race involving children's hospitals [Children as pawns...] as has a faculty member in the School of Journalism. This new US News ranking breaks with past ones in that more than just reputation is taken into consideration. Two institutions in the state of Minnesota are ranked: Children's Hospital and Clinic of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and the Mayo Clinic.

From the Daily:

U children's hospital highly ranked

Fairview was ranked the 18th-best respiratory-care facility among children's hospitals nationwide and the 19th-best cancer-care facility in the nation.

By Devin Henry

he University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, Fairview has been placed in the top 20 by two rankings of national children's hospitals conducted by U.S. News and World Report.

According to the report, Fairview is the 18th best respiratory-care facility among children's hospitals nationwide. It was also ranked the 19th best cancer-care facility in the nation.

In a statement, Fairview's Chief Operating Officer Kathie Taranto said the honor was well-earned by the staff of the hospital.

"Our future looks incredibly bright, and these rankings provide us with even more incentive to keep raising [the] bar," she said.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was ranked first for overall pediatrics and first in three of the six categories; Fairview was not in the top 30 for overall rankings.

The rankings include six different categories, cancer, digestive disorders, respiratory disorders, neurology and neurosurgery, heart and heart surgerys and neonatal care.

For anyone interested, the top thirty are:

1. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2. Children's Hospital Boston
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
4. Children's Hospital, Denver
5. Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland
6. Texas Children's Hospital, Houston
7. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
8. New York-Presbyterian Univ. Hosp. of Columbia and Cornell
9. Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle
10. Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Palo Alto, Calif.
11. Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
12. Columbus Children's Hospital
13. Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
14. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
15. St. Louis Children's Hospital
16. UCSF Children's Hospital, San Francisco
17. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
18. Primary Children's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
19. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
20. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis
21. Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, Los Angeles
22. University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Ann Arbor
23. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville
24. Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, N.Y.
25. Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago
26. Miami Children's Hospital
27. Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Minneapolis
28. Children's Medical Center Dallas
29. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
30. Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

So what does it all mean?

It would appear that Children's Hospital and Mayo have a leg up on BigU and that their operations are well regarded.

Milwaukee Children's Hospital is right up there with them.

As was also published in US News this year, the University of Minnesota Hospital does not seem to have its pediatrics operation where it should be - at least in this evaluation, which a lot of people consider in choosing hospitals. (Click this link to find a downloadable pdf file about where we stand.)

Perhaps the money (is it $150 million?) planned to be used for a new building could have been better spent bucking up the pediatrics operation? I thought pediatricians worked at hospitals for children? To be fair, since Fairview owns the University hospital, we may have less to say about this than before the sell-out.

Parting thought: Given the rankings I think that the advert at the top is incredibly tacky and not worthy of an institution aspiring to greatness.

Guilting the parents of sick children is out of line.

If you don't take your child to one of the top thirty children's hospitals in the country, maybe you might wonder if perhaps you could have done more?

Especially since two of them are within easy driving distance of the Twin Cities and Milwaukee is not really that far away.