Best Hospitals 2010-2011: the Honor Roll

By Avery Comarow, U.S. News & World Report

The new U.S. News rankings showcase 14 hospitals with high scores in six or more specialties.

It's no secret that all hospitals are not equal. The special quality shared by the 152 that made it into the new 2010-11 Best Hospitals rankings (out of nearly 5,000 that were considered), and even more so by the 14 in this year's Honor Roll, is their ability to take on and meet the most difficult challenges. Their operating rooms showcase delicate, demanding procedures -- excising a cancerous portion of a pancreas without destroying the rest of the fragile organ, say, or restoring function to an arthritis-ravaged hand through a creative blend of fusing joints and splicing tendons. They are referral centers for ill patients with multiple risks -- advanced age plus heart failure plus diabetes, perhaps.

[Scroll down to see which 14 hospitals made U.S. News' Honor Roll]