U.S. News Rankings: Moving Forward in Data Analytics and Communications

By Jean Yaeger

Now that Cook Children’s has claimed seven gold badges in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of the nation’s best children’s hospitals, where do we go from here?

The rankings released on Oct. 8 are still a fresh headline and point of pride. But already we’re gearing up for next year. To recap, seven Cook Children’s specialties achieved the 2024-2025 U.S. News rankings for pediatrics:

·        Behavioral Health – Top 50

·        Cancer -- #37 in the nation

·        Cardiology -- #37 in the nation

·        Diabetes and Endocrinology -- #44 in the nation

·        Neurology and Neurosurgery -- #45 in the nation

·        Orthopedics -- #24 in the nation

·        Pulmonology and Lung Surgery-- #48 in the nation

Quality Process Improvement (QPI) Specialists Kim Kimberling and Noelia Echols spent much of 2024 helping our departments answer thousands of questions the U.S. News surveys ask. Those questions relate to patient safety, infection prevention and many other measures. The involvement of Noelia and Kim made the process more efficient and organized. 

Now they’re laying the groundwork to start the steps -- collecting, verifying and reporting information -- all over again next year. Here’s a look at three key partnerships during the phase in between surveys. 

Communication

One tactic centers on publicizing how well Cook Children’s ranked. Kim and Noelia started meeting regularly with a committee made up of Digital Marketing, Education, Global Health Services, Internal Communications, Public Relations and Strategic Marketing/Brand Experience. Their goal is to coordinate with one another for optimal messaging on the Cook Children’s website, Checkup Newsroom and other platforms.

“All these departments are invested and interested in U.S. News. It impacts the whole system for us to be ranked and doing innovative things,” Kim said. “In the past, everybody was working toward the same goals individually, so I started a quarterly call where we map out and discuss what we’re doing in terms of promotions.”

Data Dashboard 

Cook Children’s Healthcare Analytics, meanwhile, pitched in with their expertise to solve a challenge with the alignment of survey response data. When the scoring reports were downloaded from the vendor, they merged into a single column, an inefficient format. So the Healthcare Analytics team took action to come up with a new format. 

“We created a program that would array the data as close to the actual survey as possible,” said Lesley Moss, Director of Healthcare Analytics. “Once we had the data staged appropriately, we were able to start reviewing our responses and then comparing Cook Children’s responses to peer groups that may have scored higher.” 

The team built a data dashboard with filters that enable a closer look at key areas, such as emphasis on weighted scores. By sorting and interpreting the data, strategies for score improvement can come into focus. 

“The dashboard enables us to compare rankings, overall scores, and raw scores across 11 specialties between Cook Children’s and other children’s hospitals in Texas for a specific survey year or to track year-over-year comparisons,” said Daniliz Pineda, Associate Healthcare Analyst. 

Sliding Scale 

In another example of number-crunching collaboration, Andy Kreutzer, Ph.D., created a sliding scale to predict the rankings. Andy is a research scientist for Cook Children’s Research Data Science & Analytics. 

Using inputs of survey data, he built apps that adjust a specialty’s score if a certain measure goes up or down. For instance: If a specialty gains one point in “Ability to Prevent Surgical Complications,” how does that affect the overall ranking? Click on “Update Prediction” to find out. How much would a specialty’s score increase by adding two research studies? The sliding scale calculates the precise change. 

Andy has started meeting with specialties at Cook Children’s to familiarize them with the tool and its potential for the 2025-2026 rankings cycle. He’s getting positive feedback. 

“This has been a gamechanger for our team and really for all the specialties,” Kim said. The model is accurate, easy to use, and eliminates guesswork. 

The Big Picture 
 

The QPI staff members believe our top-tier rankings reflect the dedication of employees and the excellent services offered at Cook Children’s. But they also like to quote Matthew Carroll, M.D, Associate Chief Quality Officer, who emphasizes quality of care as a primary goal over any accolades from U.S. News. 

“He always says we don’t just want to check a box to check a box to get a badge,” Kim said. “We want to do it because it’s the right thing to do.” 

If you have questions or want to learn more, contact the Cook Children's U.S. News & World Report team at USNews@cookchildrens.org or to go our CookNet page.