Inova Fairfax Hospital Ranked Among the Nation’s Best by U.S. News & World Report

Inova Hospital Named in Five Specialties, More than Any Other Hospital in the Metro Washington, D.C., Area

Falls Church, VA – (July 13, 2007) – Inova Fairfax Hospital is pleased to announce that it has once again been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Hospitals.” The hospital was selected among the best in five specialties, more than any other hospital in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Nationally, this year’s rankings for Inova Fairfax Hospital are as follows:

Specialty                                             Ranking Among Top 50
Heart and Heart Surgery                 25
Digestive Disorders                           28
Gynecology                                          38
Endocrinology                                    40
Cancer                                                     50

U.S. News & World Report uses rigorous standards for ranking the nation’s best hospitals. Hospitals are ranked by specialty and not by specific procedures. Of the 5,462 hospitals evaluated, only 173 scored high enough to be ranked in at least one specialty.

“The physicians, nurses and staff at Inova Fairfax Hospital are fully dedicated to providing world-class patient care,” says Douglas Cropper, executive vice president, Inova Health System, and administrator, Inova Fairfax Hospital Campus. “It’s very rewarding to see the hospital named among the best in the country in five specialties and we’re proud to hold such a distinction.”

According to U.S. News & World Report, the hospitals that are selected as one of “America’s Best” are often referral centers that typically treat complex conditions and conduct bench-to-bedside research.

In 12 of the 16 specialties, U.S. News & World Report ranked hospitals on hard data. To be considered, a hospital must first meet at least one of three standards: be a member of the Council of Teaching Hospitals, be affiliated with a medical school, or make available to patients at least six out of 13 technology-related services, such as image-guided radiation therapy and robotic surgery. Only one-quarter of all hospitals qualified for these standards.

From there, each specialty had its own eligibility requirements. A hospital must have seen a specified minimum number of Medicare inpatients during 2003, 2004 and 2005 who had certain conditions or underwent certain procedures, or the hospital must have been recommended by at least one physician in recent U.S. News surveys. The remaining hospitals then received a numerical assessment made up of three equal parts: reputation, death rate and care-related factors, such as nursing and advanced services.

This is the eleventh time in the past 12 years that Inova Fairfax Hospital has been ranked among the nation’s best hospitals. For more on the awards, go to the magazine’s web site.