Again this year US News & World Report has published its Best Hospitals issue. Of the 17 hospitals to make the 2014-15 Honor Roll, top honors in Geriatrics are earned by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, followed by Mt. Sinai in New York, UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and Massachusetts General in Boston. Click above link for Geriatrics honor roll.

For difficult and out-of-the ordinary diagnoses and procedures the best hospitals are most likely to have the most experience, so aren’t we’re also talking about best doctors here? It makes sense to have the above list should especially worrisome health issues arise.

For more “garden-variety” health issues there are many fine regional hospitals which are recognized in the US News and World report. To find the one(s) near you or aging parents, here’s the map of the best regional hospitals. 

Also know that the several changes were made to the ranking methodology this year. They may account for some of the changes from last year’s rankings. Check out the details at: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/second-opinion/2014/01/11/us-news-hospital-rankings-to-boost-role-of-patient-safety-cut-back-reputation 

Lastly, for a quickie snapshot and information about the 17 best hospitals, take the “photo tour.”

To help parents age well–(or for all challenges it would seem)–the more good, solid information we have beforehand, the better prepared we are. And isn’t this especially true when it comes to health issues.