Newswise — Washington, D.C., July 21, 2015 – For the third year in a row, MedStar Washington Hospital Center has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the only hospital in the Washington region with a nationally ranked heart program. The 2015-16 U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings identify hospitals that excel in treating patients with the most challenging medical conditions.

This marks the 19th year that the Hospital Center has been nationally ranked in the top 50 by U.S. News. This year, less than three percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals analyzed for the Best Hospitals listing earned national ranking in even one specialty. U.S. News also cited three of the Hospital Center’s other specialties as high-performing: Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Nephrology and Urology. With one of the highest-volume cardiac programs in the nation, MedStar Washington Hospital Center is home to MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute, which integrates the heart programs and services of all 10 MedStar Health hospitals, MedStar’s cardiology practices and outpatient centers in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region. It was in 2013 that MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute forged a first-of-its-kind clinical and research alliance with world-renowned Cleveland Clinic Heart & Vascular Institute.

“A Best Hospital has demonstrated expertise in treating the most challenging patients,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “A hospital that emerged from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of.” U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or extra risk because of age or multiple health problems. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, adequacy of nurse staffing levels and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.

The rankings are available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals 2016” guidebook, available in August.