US News to add Lown Index overuse metric to Best Hospitals ranking

Editors Note: The US News & World Report rankings are now available on their website.

This year, US News & World Report will be incorporating the Spinal Fusion Overuse metric from the Lown Hospitals Index into their “Best Hospitals” ranking for 2021/2022.

In a recent blog post, US News Managing Editor and Chief of Health Analysis Ben Harder announced changes to their hospital ranking methodology, one of which is the addition of the Spinal Fusion overuse metric into their Back Surgery rating. “Because a pattern of overuse or low-value care is not compatible with being a high-quality provider, U.S. News will explore additional opportunities to incorporate measures of value in future editions of Best Hospitals,” Harder writes.

The US News rankings will be released July 27th. Read the full blog post on the US News website.