For the fourth year in a row, U.S. News and World Report rated Duke University Medical Center sixth-best in the nation, highlighting its excellence in 13 specialties such as heart and heart surgery, geriatrics, cancer and gynecology.
"We are pleased that U.S. News and World Report has once again included Duke amongst the very best medical centers in the United States. This designation is a reflection of the talent and dedication of our physicians, nurses and staff," said Dr. William Fulkerson, CEO of Duke University Hospital, in a statement.
U.S. News compiles its data by evaluating each hospital's mortality statistics, reputation among American Medical Association certified physicians and other care-related factors, provided the hospital meets initial entry standards.
"We have an absolutely first-class faculty at Duke," he said. "We have a formidable interaction between physicians, the nursing staff and other staff."
Duke's heart and heart surgery program ranked fourth in the nation - highest of any of Duke's specialties - and moved up one spot from last year's rankings.
Goldschmidt, who formerly served as chief of cardiology, is optimistic that Duke's heart program can easily reach the top of the charts, having left Johns Hopkins Hospital's heart program "in the dust." Hopkins is ranked first in the overall survey, although its heart program is ranked sixth. "My goal is that within the next six years, Duke will be number one, providing that we can continue to reinvest the resources we've created through faculty and staff," he said.
For the Medical Center's overall ranking to climb even further, the progress made by the cardiology division and the Heart Center must be mimicked by other programs one at a time, Goldschmidt added. "I am absolutely convinced that we can take [every other] program and bring it to the top of the country, but we have to prioritize. We have to decide which ones are the closest to number one, and that's where we have to start," he said.
This year geriatrics ranked fifth, obstetrics and gynecology fifth and oncology seventh; only ob-gyn moved up from last year's results.
Chair of Geriatrics Dr. Harvey Cohen said he was "delighted" to be ranked highly, although he took the results with a grain of salt. "In geriatrics, the top five programs are good, credible programs. They all belong in the top five, but how easy it is to distinguish [between them] gets difficult," he said.
Cohen differentiated Duke from the programs rated above it by emphasizing that those programs usually have very large clinical services, a component Duke does not emphasize as much as its academic program. When U.S. News ranks geriatrics programs based on teaching and research, he said, Duke typically ranks higher than sixth.
Ranked sixth for the past two years, orthopedics holds much promise to climb the charts, said Dr. James Nunley, chief of orthopedics. The division is planning on adding six new faculty members, three of whom have "incredibly prominent national positions," he said.
Nunley, who has been chief for one year, pointed out, however, that space restrictions for the division have hindered its full potential. "Our biggest need is for the University to provide us adequate space and facilities to grow. We have people who want to come to work for us and we don't have operating space, office space or research space. If we could get the University to help us, we can grow by leaps and bounds," he said.
With the ophthalmology department maintaining its ranking at eight, Dr. David Epstein, chair of the department and director of the Duke Eye Center, who is also feeling the effects of a space crunch, said he was satisfied with the results.
"I'm very pleased that Duke ophthalmology has once again been ranked as one of the top programs in the country, and I expect our ranking, prestige and productivity to increase further with the [new] Albert Eye Research Institute and the expansion of our programs," he said.
The survey also ranked Duke's specialties in digestive disorders, kidney disease, urology, respiratory disorders, rheumatology, psychiatry, neurology, hormonal disorders, pediatrics and ear, nose and throat. Only psychiatry and neurology programs fell in the rankings compared to last year, and their decline was slight.
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