America’s Best Hospitals

This invaluable guide examines each of the nation’s 1,488 tertiary care centers. It ranks hospitals, state-by-state, and in 10 metropolitan areas, in 16 specialties from AIDS to Urology. Provides pertinent information on reputational score, morality rate, ratio of nurses and doctors to patients, inpatient operations to bed ratio, discharge planning, new health care reforms and much more. Features advice on when a top hospital can make a difference, how to get admitted to a top hospital, when local alternatives are just as good, the importance of nurses, and six other related topics.