UAB Medicine News

The U.S. News & World Report 2020-2021 Best Hospitals list ranks the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB No. 25 in the country for cancer care. This marks the cancer center’s first top-25 ranking.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment and a testimony to the hard work of our clinical, research, and community outreach teams,” says O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Barry Sleckman, MD, PhD. “We are committed to every single person in Alabama getting premium cancer care when they need it most, and this ranking reflects just that. I can’t emphasize enough that, when it comes to cancer care, it matters where you are treated first.”

The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center’s mission is to provide the highest quality of life for people diagnosed with cancer, advance the world’s understanding of cancer, and use this knowledge to improve in the areas of prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.

About the Rankings

Once again, U.S. News also named UAB the best hospital in Alabama. Cancer is one of seven specialty programs at UAB that were ranked among the top 30 in this year’s Best Hospitals report.

To compile its rankings, U.S. News analyzed data from nearly 5,000 medical centers and survey responses from more than 30,000 physicians. Survival rates, patient experience, specialized staff, and advanced technologies were among the factors weighed.

With an overall score of 59.8 out of 100, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB received “very high” to “excellent” scores in each of the three data categories used to determine national rank. Two cancer-related procedures also were listed as “high-performing” in the report: colon cancer surgery and lung cancer surgery.

The Best Hospitals rankings assess hospital performance in 16 specialties or specialty areas. In 12 of these, rankings are determined by an extensive, data-driven analysis that combines performance measures in three primary dimensions of health care: structure, process/expert opinion, and outcomes. In the four other specialties, the ranking relies solely on expert opinions.

The structural measures include hospital volume, nurse staffing, and other resources that define the hospital environment. The data source for most structural measures is the American Hospital Association’s annual survey. Additional resources include the National Cancer Institute’s list of NIH-designated cancer centers and the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s roster of Magnet hospitals, which recognizes hospitals with outstanding nursing care and patient outcomes.

Click here to learn more about UAB’s scoring in the 2020-2021 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings.