The Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania has been enjoying the spotlight this week.
HUP was named to U.S. News and World Report's Honor Roll of America's best hospitals for the ninth consecutive year.
"We take it as an honor," said Garry Scheib, executive director of HUP and chief operating officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
"It comes from many years of high-quality service," he said, adding that "without the staff and nurses we wouldn't have the reputation. It's really a team effort."
The hospital was ranked 15th out of the 16 hospitals on the honor roll.
About 6,007 institutions around the country were surveyed.
In all, 176 medical centers appeared in U.S. News and World Report's rankings of America's best hospitals, and the 16 Honor Roll hospitals were selected based on achieving high rankings in at least six of 17 specialty areas.
Within specialty areas, HUP ranked 12th in gynecology -- its highest specialty ranking -- and 13th in ear, nose and throat; neurology and neurosurgery; and respiratory disorders, as well as 14th in psychiatry.
Scheib said that even though the rankings take into account high-profile research and mortality, it is the "type and level of services" that put HUP where it is.
HUP was ranked first in the Philadelphia area in all of these specialties, as well as in digestive disorders, rheumatology, geriatrics, kidney disease, urology and heart and heart surgery.
HUP ranked 20th nationally in heart and heart surgery. Proving they earn the ranking, HUP heart surgeons were chosen recently to take part in the pilot study phase of a heart-transplant alternative device.
HUP was selected by the Thoratec Corporation as one of 27 hospitals nationwide to take part in the clinical trial for Thoratec's new HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist System.
The device was designed to be implanted in patients whose hearts are failing.
Susanne Hartman, a spokeswoman for the Health System, said the device is meant to be an "alternative to a heart transplant and is about sustaining life and quality of life."
The HeartMate II is powered by a rotary pumping mechanism that delivers a continuous flow of blood to the body at the rate of a normal healthy heart.
The mechanism contains only one moving part and weighs 14 ounces.
HUP Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery Mike Acker said that the device is only about the size of a thumb and requires less surgical trauma than the standard transplant, which allows it to be more easily used in women and children.
The device is powered by a small battery that lasts about five years, better than the two-year lifespan of most current devices.
The HeartMate II was implanted into a 70-year-old native of Glenside, Pa. -- a suburb of Philadelphia.
Before the procedure, physicians thought that the patient only had a few weeks to live, but currently he is "doing very well and can't wait to bowl again," said Hartman.
"It makes me just as proud [as the ranking]," Scheib said. "It's part of our mission to be on the cutting edge and look at options to provide care to those without options."
