Newsweek ranks Mayo Clinic Jacksonville among top hospitals in world. Where did they land?

The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville is one of the top hospitals, not just in Florida, but worldwide, according to a new Newsweek magazine ranking.

The Jacksonville hospital ranked No. 52 in Newsweek's "World's Best Hospitals 2023," which listed 250 medical centers from Berlin to Singapore. The list was topped by Mayo's main campus in Rochester, Minn.; its Phoenix campus was No. 78.

"Providing our patients with the highest quality of care is our top priority," said Dr. Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo in Jacksonville. "This ranking is only possible due to each one of our dedicated employees who work tirelessly on behalf of our patients and are committed to Mayo Clinic’s mission and values."

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The Newsweek rankings are based on patient survey results, recommendations from about 80,000 health care professionals and other metrics such as patient safety and outcomes, hygiene and quality of care.

"These are challenging times for hospitals. COVID-19 put unprecedented stress on health systems, as have inflation and global financial uncertainty," Newsweek Global Editor Nancy Cooper said. "In the U.S. and around the world, leading hospitals are dealing with rising costs, aging populations and a medical workforce exhausted from battling a global pandemic."

The top-four hospitals in the world, according to Newsweek are all in the U.S. After Mayo Rochester are the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

"Among the hallmarks of great hospitals, however, are not just first-class care, first-class research and first-class innovation. The very best institutions also share another quality: consistency," Cooper said. "The world's best hospitals consistently attract the best people and provide the best outcomes for patients as well as the most important new therapies and research. Of all the hospitals in the world, relatively few can do all those things year in and year out. The best belong to a very exclusive club."

What's so special about Mayo Clinic Jacksonville?

Opened in 1986 on the city's Southside, Mayo provides diagnosis, medical treatment, surgery and care for more than 120,000 patients each year in 40 specialty areas, as well as conducting medical research, according to the hospital. Today, the nearly 400-acre campus has almost 9,200 employees: 7,936 health staff, 780 physicians and scientists and 400 residents and fellows.

Mayo in Jacksonville is often declared one of the best in the country — Newsweek ranked it as No. 17 — and the in the state — U.S. News & World Report cited it No. 1 in Florida.

The U.S. News report has ranked Mayo No. 1 in Florida for six of the past seven years, citing its high expertise in cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, orthopedics and urology.

Mayo in Jacksonville also held its own worldwide. For the fifth annual "World's Best" listing, Newsweek and global data firm Statista ranked the top 250 hospitals from about 2,300 hospitals in 28 countries, including a new addition, Taiwan.

The 28 countries — U.S., Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, Canada, India, Australia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Austria, Thailand, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Colombia and Taiwan — were selected based on "multiple comparability factors, such as standard of living/life expectancy, population size, number of hospitals and data availability," according to Newsweek.

Some area residents have complained that Mayo does not take Medicare patients. Mayo spokesman Kevin Punsky clarified that the hospital accepts patients who have original Medicare plans — Parts A,B and D — and Medicare supplements, but is not accepting new Medicare patients in primary care.

Why is that good for Jacksonville?

The Jacksonville area is often touted as a health care destination because of the number of hospitals there, as well as their respective quality.

"Being home to one of three Mayo Clinics in the nation is an incredible selling point for our community," JAXUSA Partnership President Aundra Wallace said. "Having access to that level of care is a tremendous benefit for local residents and it also serves as an entry point to our region for people traveling to Jacksonville for medical treatment."

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Mayor Lenny Curry said, "I want to thank Mayo Clinic for their consistent commitment to patients from across the country and here at home. Jacksonville is proud to be home to one of the best hospitals in the world."

In addition to Mayo, the area hosts Baptist Health and its five hospitals, Ascension St. Vincent's and its three hospitals and two HCA Healthcare hospitals, as well as their multiple satellite offices. Although Mayo is the only one of them to be on the world's best list, many of the other hospitals are often cited among Florida's best in patient care and safety rankings.

In December, seven of the 14 full-service hospitals in the Jacksonville area received top marks in a national health care watchdog organization’s latest patient-safety survey. In 2021, The Leapfrog Group gave top marks to eight area hospitals.

Leapfrog tracks 28 measures, including medical errors, injuries, accidents and infections, to show how well hospitals prevent patient harm.

What's next for Mayo?

An expansion is underway at Mayo, part of $1 billion in planned projects at its San Pablo Road campus. By 2026, Mayo will have more doubled its space and accommodations for more growth in the years ahead, according to the hospital.

The expansion includes a $432 million project to add five hospital floors to its main facility, with multiple operating rooms and procedural space.

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Also underway is a $233 million. 200,000-square-foot oncology building that will include proton beam therapy for cancer patients and will house the first carbon ion therapy center in North America.

In addition, Mayo has added an 866-space, $38 million parking garage and expanded its emergency room. Also coming to the campus is a Hilton Hotel.

bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Mayo Clinic Jacksonville among Newsweek's best hospitals in the world