The U.S. News methodologies in most areas of care are based largely on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates, volume, patient experience, patient safety and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators. Methodology updates made for 2017-18 included:

More data: Five years of Medicare data – covering more than 60 million hospitalizations – were used to calculate Procedures and Conditions ratings, as opposed to three years used in previous ratings.
Best Regional Hospitals: Procedures and conditions ratings, which rely entirely on objective data, were emphasized more than specialty rankings in determining state and metro rankings.
Socioeconomic status and transfer patients: Day in and day out, hospitals treat patients of varying income levels, ages and health challenges. U.S. News improved its measurements to avoid penalizing hospitals for treating low-income patients or for accepting high-risk cases transferred from other hospitals.
Volume: The number of patients treated, which reflects a hospital's level of experience, has long been an important quality indicator in U.S. News rankings. This year, U.S.