The University of Wisconsin Hospital is one of the top five teaching hospitals in the country, according to a study conducted by University Health System Consortium.

The hospitals were ranked in five categories: patient-centeredness, equity, safety, effectiveness and mortality.

Other top hospitals were Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, Ind.; Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Ill.; St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas; and University Medical Center, Houston, Texas as the other top four institutions.

“We have been ranked highly before but never as high as the top five,” said Lisa Brunette, UW Hospital spokesperson.

Brunette added UW Hospital always seeks to improve its care and that its leadership is “never quite satisfied” with the level of quality. There is always more that can be done in a more efficient way, she said.

“UW, as well as other major teaching hospitals, are members of UHC,” Brunette said. “What we’re being compared to are hospitals like Duke and St. Luke’s Episcopal in Houston, pretty well-known names across the country.”

Terry Devitt, UW research spokesperson, said reputation is an important factor for a university or hospital, and the high ranks are “certainly not surprising” but satisfactory for UW.

“The hospital is a very important part of the university, and it constitutes a very important part of our teaching and research, and it’s gratifying that other folks would recognize that,” Devitt said.

UW Hospital also scored remarkably high on equity, which according to Brunette, comes from UW providing care to different groups of people regardless of gender, race and income differences. 

Attaining this prestigious ranking recognizes the quality of care UW Hospital has been known for giving, Brunette added.

“It’s very gratifying,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard to achieve this, and the most important beneficiary will be our patients, not us, because that is what we do.”

–Pedro Oliveira Jr. contributed to this report.