U.S. News & World Report ranks Duke Hospital among the best

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Duke University Medical Center among the nation's Top 10 hospitals.

Duke is No. 8 in this year’s rankings, which were released Monday. The magazine also included Mass General, Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic in the Top 10.

Duke also ranked as the No. 1 hospital in state and in the Triangle. This is the 23rd consecutive year that Duke has been included in the magazine’s list of best hospitals in the country.

"These rankings recognize the outstanding medical care provided by Duke physicians and health care teams on behalf of patients in our community, state and nation," Dr. Victor J. Dzau, president and chief executive officer of Duke University Health System, said in a statement. "At a time of uncertainty in the nation's health care environment, Duke Medicine is committed to providing the best care to its patients."

The magazine assessed 16 medical specialties at each of the 5,000 hospitals in the U.S. that are evaluated. The combined assessments form the basis for the overall hospital ranking. Eight of those specialty areas at Duke made the Top 10, while four others placed highly.

Among the magazine's 2012-2013 specialty rankings for Duke are: pulmonology, No. 5; cardiology and heart surgery, No. 7; ophthalmology, No. 7; urology, No. 7; geriatrics, No. 8; gynecology, No. 8; orthopedics, No. 9; rheumatology, No. 10; nephrology, No. 13; cancer, No. 13; neurology and neurosurgery, No. 14.

University of North Carolina Hospitals ranked third in the state and second in the Triangle, while Durham Regional Hospital ranked fifth in the state and third in the Triangle.