From 1991 to 2004, the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of America's Best Hospitals was produced by the Statistics and Methodology Department of NORC for U.S. News & World Report.

Using original survey data and secondary analyses of data from the American Hospital Association and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, NORC created an Index of Hospital Quality on an annual basis. This index had three components designed to represent three key aspects of care--structure, process, and outcome. These components were combined to give an overall score for each hospital, on which the rankings published by U.S. News were based.

For more information about this study, please see the U.S. News website.