Our annual ranking of America's Best Hospitals, now in its 18th year, has become the cornerstone of a large and growing franchise in health journalism. As medicine becomes increasingly complicated and consumers must make crucial healthcare decisions on their own, the need for reliable information is more important than ever. We've always tried to deliver hard facts and sound advice. Now we're able to do it in versatile ways.
The rankings themselves have been tweaked and upgraded to reflect the best available data and professional thinking. The main story goes beyond the numbers and tells readers how to go to the hospital. It's a step-by-step guide for navigating a modern hospital, including the bill. As part of our online coverage, at health.usnews.com, our health editor, Bernadine Healy, M.D., helps humanize the experience by taking you on a video tour of a hospital stay. It's just one of an expanding set of Web tools that include our new health-community site, featuring chat rooms and community information centers tailored to the specific disease or condition you're dealing with. We've also introduced a drug directory to help you sort through the baffling array of pharmaceutical choices. And look for more in the coming months as we continue to fill the healthcare information needs of our readers.
This story appears in the July 23, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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