Shands at UF ranks 12th nationally in pediatric endocrinology programs

The pediatric endocrinology program at Shands Children’s Hospital at the University of Florida has been ranked 12th nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s annual look at the best children’s hospitals.

The rankings, released Thursday, list the top 30 hospitals in 10 pediatric subspecialities.

This is the first time Shands Children’s Hospital at UF has been included in the rankings. The pediatric endocrinology program earned the top listing among all Florida hospitals named in the report.

Shands Children’s Hospital has 155 beds, including fully equipped pediatric and neonatal intensive care units.

The UF division of pediatric endocrinology includes eight board-certified faculty physicians, two pediatric psychologists, three nurse practitioners and three pediatricians getting specialized training in pediatric endocrinology.

“It’s an honor for our expert UF faculty physicians and Shands staff to be acknowledged among the nation’s best,” said Dr. Janet Silverstein, division chief.

Programs include clinics for type 1 and type 2 diabetes, diagnosis and treatment of growth disorders and congenital or acquired disorders of the endocrine system, obesity/lipid clinics for children and the national center for treatment of glycogen storage disease.

Sixty-two hospitals were ranked in one or more of these pediatric specialties: cancer, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, heart and heart surgery, kidney, neonatology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology. As part of the ranking process, some 1,500 pediatric specialists were asked to name the best hospitals for children in their medical specialty.

A small number of hospitals – eight this year – ranked in all 10 specialties and make up the 2010-11 Best Children’s Hospitals honor roll. Those were Children’s Hospital Boston, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, New York Presbyterian-Morgan Stanley-Komansky Children’s Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital-Washington University and Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston.

The full rankings are posted online at http://www.usnews.com/childrenshospitals. They will appear in the August print edition of the news magazine.

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By Diane Chun

Staff writer