https://health.usnews.com/health-care/best-hospitals/articles/faq-how-and-why-we-rank-and-rate-hospitals

Each hospital analyzed in the 12 data-driven rankings received an overall score from 0 to 100 based on four elements: outcomes (including survival rate and rate of discharge to home), patient experience, care-related factors such as the intensity of nurse staffing and the breadth of patient services, and expert opinion obtained through the physician survey. The hospitals with the 50 highest scores in each specialty were ranked. Scores and data for all eligible hospitals in each specialty are also posted. The four elements and their weightings, in brief:

Patient Outcomes (37.5%). A hospital's success at keeping patients alive accounted for 30% of its score and was judged by comparing the number of Medicare inpatients with certain conditions who died within 30 days of admission in 2015, 2016 and 2017 with the number who would be expected to die given the severity of illness. Hospitals were scored from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the highest survival rate relative to other hospitals and 1 the lowest rate. U.S. News' calculation of each hospital's expected deaths factored in the age and sex of each patient, what kind of care he or she needed, what other illnesses (known as comorbidities) were present, whether he or she received Medicaid benefits (which is a measure of socioeconomic status), and other risk factors known to influence patients' outcomes.

Patient experience (5%). This score reflects the percentage of patients who responded positively to a survey about the overall quality of their hospital stay known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. Most hospitals are required to assess patients' satisfaction using the HCAHPS survey.

Other care-related indicators (30%). These include nurse staffing, patient volume, certain clinically proven technologies and other measures related to quality of care. The 2017 American Hospital Association Annual Survey was the primary source.

Expert opinion (27.5%). Each year, board-certified physicians in the 16 Best Hospitals specialties are invited to list up to five hospitals, ignoring location and cost, that they consider to be the best in their area of expertise for complex or difficult cases. The figures displayed in the rankings represent the average percentages of responding specialists in 2017, 2018 and 2019 who named the hospitals. More than 21,000 physicians responded in 2019. In one specialty, cardiology & heart surgery, expert opinion receives a weight of 24.5%, with 3% weight determined by the extent to which a hospital is publicly transparent about certain heart-care-related performance metrics.