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Awards and Achievements

UC San Diego ranked No. 1 in San Diego

Being recognized for quality patient care is a hospital's highest recognition. Recent awards and achievements for patient care include:

  • Best Hospital in San Diego – Ranked No. 1 hospital system in San Diego and No. 5 in California for 2021-22 by U.S. News and World Report.
  • More Top Ranked Specialties – Ranked among the nation’s best in 10 adult medical and surgical specialties for 2021-22 by U.S. News and World Report – more than any hospital system in San Diego: Cancer (No. 17); Cardiology & Heart Surgery (No. 23); Ear, Nose & Throat (No. 26); Gastroenterology and GI Surgery (No. 18); Geriatrics (No. 13); Gynecology (No. 29); Neurology & Neurosurgery (No. 26); Orthopedics (No. 45); Pulmonology & Lung Surgery (No. 9); Urology (No. 39).
  • Among the Nation's Top 3 Academic Medical Centers for Patient Care – For superior performance in the quality of its patient care, UC San Diego Health earned a 2021 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award from Vizient, Inc.
  • "A's" for Hospital Safety  – UC San Diego Health's hospitals in La Jolla and Hillcrest once again earned top marks from The Leapfrog Group in the fall of 2021 for keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.
  •  "Top Docs"   –  More than 100 UC San Diego Health physicians in 48 specialties named "Top Docs" in the 2021 San Diego Magazine “Physicians of Exceptional Excellence” survey, an annual opportunity for doctors across the region to vote for much-admired colleagues
  • Nursing Excellence – Maintains Magnet status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, considered among the highest recognitions for nursing excellence and innovation in nursing practice
  • Outstanding Stroke Care – In 2020, earned the American Heart Association's / American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and is listed on their Stroke Elite Plus and Type 2 Diabetes honor rolls.
  • Excellence in Maternity Care – In 2021, one of only two health care systems in the county to meet all the maternity care standards identified by The Leapfrog Group as indicative of quality maternity and neonate care. UC San Diego Health is also a recipient of 2021 Maternity Care Honor Roll, awarded by Cal Hospital Compare, in partnership with the California Health & Human Services Agency.
  • Information Technology to Enhance Patient Care and Comfort – Named a level 9 "most wired" hospital in both the acute and ambulatory categories by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) in 2021. These distinctions recognize our efforts to focus on technology strategies that support meaningful outcomes for our patients.
  • LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Leader – Scored a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Index for the eighth year straight in 2020.