NEWS
17 Delaware facilities land on US News’ Best Hospitals list for 2026
Krys’tal GriffinDelaware News Journal
Aug. 6, 2026, 5:43 a.m. ET
More than a dozen Delaware hospitals have been named among the best in the nation in a new report.
U.S. News & World Report released its annual Best Hospitals rankings on Aug. 4, highlighting hospitals across the United States that excel across various types of care regionally and nationwide.
The U.S. News Best Hospitals are evaluated based on specialty rankings and procedure and condition rankings.
The Best Hospitals Specialty rankings are meant for patients with serious conditions who need a hospital that excels at treating complex cases. Hospitals are ranked from 1 to 50 in each specialty. Those not in the top 50 but still in the top tier of all eligible hospitals are “high performing.”
Only 178 U.S. hospitals performed well enough to be nationally ranked in one or more specialties. The specialties assessed include:
- Cancer
- Cardiology, heart and vascular surgery
- Diabetes and endocrinology
- Gastroenterology and GI surgery
- Geriatrics
- Obstetrics and gynecology
- Neurology and neurosurgery
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopedics
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonology lung surgery
- Rehabilitation
- Rheumatology
- Urology
The Best Hospitals Procedures & Conditions ratings reflect how well hospitals perform in treating the full range of patients for a specific area, such as hip replacement or treating heart failure, not just the mos challenging cases as in the specialty rankings. Hospitals that treat enough patients to be assessed are rated as either “high performing,” “as expected” or “evaluated.”
The Best Hospitals procedures and conditions ratings evaluate almost every hospital in the U.S. that admits patients for any of 23 common procedures and conditions:
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair
- Aortic valve surgery
- Back surgery (spinal fusion)
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Colon cancer surgery
- Congestive heart failure
- Diabetes
- Ear, nose and throat surgery
- Gynecological cancer surgery
- Heart arrhythmia
- Heart attack
- Heart bypass surgery
- Hip fracture
- Hip replacement
- Kidney failure
- Knee replacement
- Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma
- Lung cancer surgery
- Pacemaker implantation
- Pneumonia
- Prostate cancer surgery
- Stroke
- Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)
Of the thousands of hospitals considered for the various rankings in the 2026-2027 report, 17 Delaware facilities received top accolades.
Delaware hospitals and medical centers highlighted in best hospitals rankings
In the rankings, the Best Hospitals Honor Roll recognizes 20 hospitals that have “excellent results in treating patients in the full range of adult care – both performance in the Best Hospitals Specialty rankings and the Best Hospitals Procedures & Conditions.”
While no Delaware hospitals were listed on the Honor Roll, a handful of facilities in the First State did receive top honors for other categories.
Nationwide, 505 hospitals were recognized as Best Regional Hospitals. ChristianaCare’s Newark Campus was one of them, ranking No. 1 in Delaware and No. 5 in the Philadelphia metro area.
U.S. News & World Report defines a Best Regional Hospital as one that:
- Offers a full range of general medical and surgical services (as opposed to a specialty hospital).
- Earned eight or more ratings of “high performing” in the Best Hospitals Procedures & Conditions ratings and Maternity Care.
- Had at least five more “high performing” procedures and conditions than “evaluated” ratings across procedures and conditions and maternity care.
ChristianaCare’s Newark Campus ranked “high performing” in 13 procedures and conditions.
Nemours Children’s Health was also recognized as a Best Regional Hospital, ranked No. 1 in Delaware and No. 8 in the Mid-Atlantic region. The hospital ranked No. 8 nationally in pediatric specialties.
The following Delaware hospitals were not top ranked but received the following recognition:
- Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus in Dover was considered “high performing” in two procedures and conditions
- Beebe Healthcare – Lewes Campus in Lewes was considered “high performing” in five procedures and conditions
- Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Middletown in Middletown was considered “high performing” in one specialty
- PAM Rehabilitation Hospital of Dover in Dover was considered “high performing” in one specialty
- TidalHealth Nanticoke in Seaford was considered “high performing” in three procedures and conditions
The rest of the Delaware facilities included in the rankings, without top accolades or recognition for being “high performing,” were:
- Bayhealth Hospital in Milford
- Delaware Psychiatric Center in New Castle
- Dover Behavioral Hospital in Dover
- Meadow Wood Behavioral Health System in New Castle
- PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Georgetown in Georgetown
- Rockford Center in Newark
- Select Specialty Hospital – Wilmington, located in ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital in Wilmington
- St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington
- Sun Behavioral Delaware Hospital in Georgetown
- Wilmington Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Wilmington
Similarly, U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best States rankings, released on July 28, saw Delaware ranked No. 13 for health care, which is measured based on health care access, health care quality and public health outcomes.
Nationwide, the First State also ranked in the following ways:
- No. 2 for hospital quality, which measures hospital success in performing or treating various procedures and conditions, such as organ failure, cancer surgeries, joint replacement and more
- No. 4 for health care quality, which is based on Medicare quality, hospital quality, preventable hospital admissions and nursing home quality
- No. 10 for health care access, which looks at wellness visits and dental visits of adults and children, as well as health insurance enrollment and affordability
Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.
