I'm confused.

Looking around the country at various hospitals, it seems as though nearlly half of almost 6,000 hospitals nationwide can claim to be a TOP 100 hospital in some regard or another.  So what does it all mean to be a TOP 100 Hospital?  Who's right?  ...and probably most importantly: is there money changing hands in return for a ranking?

First, let's look at the surveyors of these reports.  A quick Google search for the "Top 100 Hospitals" shows the following top results:

1.  US NEWS

2.  Solucient

3.  USA Today

4.  JCHO

5.  American Medical Association (AMA)

6.  Healthgrades

7.  Thomson Healthcare (100TopHospitals.com / HCIA-Sachs)

Forthcoming posts will investigate and report on the findings of the various surveyors and their MEASURES, FINACIAL MOTIVES, METHOD of GATHERING the INFORMATION, and little know (and never published) EXCLUSIVITY AGREEMENTS for ranking their "Top 100 Hospitals."  ...stay tuned, this could get interesting!

Method:

Financial Gain: