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U.S. News Rankings Coming Friday

July 8, 2002

Dear Colleagues:

U.S. News & World Report magazine is, once again, preparing to publish its annual rankings of "America's Best Hospitals." We'll find out if we're at the top of the list for the twelfth year in a row when the magazine officially releases its results to the public on Friday, July 12.

Being first is always a good feeling and in the case of Johns Hopkins and its dedicated and talented employees, it is well deserved.

But this year as in the past, it is even more important to keep these rankings in proper perspective. The medical centers consistently included in the Top 10 of the magazine's "Honor Roll" are all superb institutions whose positions on the list may be separated by relatively small differences in the publication's calculations. We should be--and we are--honored to be in such good company.

It bears pointing out that although there is a "popularity" component to the rankings, there is also an increasing number of objective measures of excellence, taken from government information about each hospital's patient care, clinical outcomes, facilities, staff and organization considered. No effort to evaluate the complex world of health care is perfect. But given that any hospital can purchase promotional advertising touting its reputation, the independent rankings and analysis developed by U.S. News carry real value to the public, to insurers and to all of us who organize and deliver care.

We recognize and appreciate that the reason you do your best every day isn't to earn rankings in a magazine. You come here to help patients, to improve the health of our community, to support the advance of new knowledge and to work closely with one another to make a difference in the world of medicine. So no matter in what place we are ranked on July 12, we will be at the doorways and at various stations throughout the Hospital, along with many department directors and administrators, to welcome you to work and to thank you for all that you do for Johns Hopkins Medicine, our patients and our visitors.

The accolades we receive from U.S. News and World Report are something which we can all be proud, but we certainly don't require those rankings to know that Hopkins employees are the "Best of the Best."

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