I have no ax to grind.. i own no hospital or hospital stock. but to rank the hospital on the amount of funding it gets for its clinical trials or the number of physicians or the size of its assets.  I was told that a very very large percentage of the money that larger medcenters get comes from the clinical trial support moneys a point which has been offered to explain why so many patients are on one or the other clinical trial..

A US News and World report article ranked hospitals as stated " Rank is based on a hospital's overall score, or U.S. News Index, which is made up of three equal parts—reputation, mortality rate, and a set of other data such as technology and nursing care. Much of this latter information is customized by specialty." Click the article and decide for yourself.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/nycu/health/hosptl/hospmeth.html

I think patients should develop their own list of critiera by which to rate medical service providers: hospitals, medical insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment companies, medical schools, post graduate medical training, NIH, research centers, home health, physicians and nurses..

The patient ranking system (PRS) should be independant of the providers, all of them, and should ignore provider funding, the size of the provider physical facilities, the number and types of degrees employed by the provider, where the providers were trained and the like... those criteria are accreditation criteria which keeps bueaucrats busy, but which mean little to patients.

Further, i think patients should not try to rate one provider over another as if the different providers were in a race, instead patients should rate each class of service by a criteria that is rigid. A grade point system as is used in college is probably a good start.  An A if they fulfill each requirement, a B if they do most things well, a c if they barely get by, a D if they do very poorly, and an F if their effort if the provider is so inefficient that it amounts to nothing at all..

I suggest the first item in the patient "provider qualifications list should be has the provider done basic research (not applying research already done on animals to humans and calling it medical research) and discovered how to prevent cancer. If so, have the research papers been published and dedicated to the public domain so that all can view them without paying a big bucks fee? Since, to my knowledge all hospitals on the list fail this requirement, the highest grade any of them can get is a B..

I suggest that the second item on the list for each of the provider sectors mentioned above(hospital, pharmaceutical companies, home health agencies, physicians, etc.) is compliance with the patient's( as defined by the patient) need for full, complete and total disclosure of all available information about the disease of the patient.

a. did the provider make every patient completely aware of the disease?

i. instruct or provide instruction designed to educate the patient about the literature and vocabulary of the disease
ii. discuss all of its ramifications of the prognosis
iii. discuss the progression of the disease and its stages
iv. help the patient to evaluation his/her medical options
v. make sure patient understands the word phenotype and genotype vi. discuss patients expected phonetype and genotype disease course

b. did the provider give the patient complete unlimited access to all
   medical records and medical books and research papers in printed and
   digital form whereever they exist in the world?

c. did the provider make sure that each patient knew of all lawsuits and
   medical board complaints filed against the provider and employees prior
   to agreeing to testing, dx, or treatment?

d. did provider do a complete body fluid and gene workup on the patient as a
   part of the provider examination, treatment and diagnostic; and if so,
   did provider make the results of tests with explaination of possible
   meaning to all patients?

e. did provider explain to patient all diagnostic limitations and include
   warnings that provider did not have access to all lastest equipment and
   know-how which may be available elsewhere?

f. were complete survival statistics ranked in relevant genetic phenotypic
   order, provided to all patients (printed handout or patient accessible
   urls(http://www.allknownmedicalinfoaboutyourdisease.org/) which clearly,
   in simple, but complete words, show the full impact of:

i. treatment option, by pheno type, on patient survival
ii. treatment option, by pheno type, on all other outcomes(like       loss of sexual function, neobladder required, etc.)
iii. expected costs of treatment options by phenotype

g. were patients given a complete cost estimates including all hospital
   charges, out patient charges, physician charges, and pharmaceutical
   costs in advance of diagonosis and or treatment

h. did the provider satisfactorily explain his/her dependance on medical
   insurance or research funding for paying a part or all of the tests,
   treatment and or clinical trials?

i. did the provider advise in advance which parts of the charges would be
   covered by medical insurance, and which part of the services would be
   paid to the provider from research activities or funds and which part
   would be paid by the patient.

j. did the provider provide the patient with an adequate basis for comparing
   cost of services to be provided by provider as compared to the fees for
   equivalent services as rendered that the patient might find around the
   country with a schedule showing as a mininium the following line items
   service to be
                   highest   lowest  average    amount    amount*
                   rendered    (available)    proposed    allowed

blood              $ 1000  $   10   $   80     $   300    $    20
Genetic typing     $ 2000  $   25   $  240     $   800    $   300
Surgical Procedure $20000  $  300   $ 6000     $   8000    $   450
Etc.
* amount allowed by patient's own insurance or medical coverage.

3. Did the provider advise the patient early enough and in sufficient detail
   to adequately prepare the patient for situations that might develop which
   could impact on the patient's well being, things like:

a. possible side effects of the proposed treatments
b. possible conditions patient may experience as the disease progresses.
c. patient 365day/24hr instant consult for emergencies and routine concers
d. specific or unique conditions your phenotype might encounter