HealthGrades, a national independent health-care ratings company, released today its second annual “America’s 50 Best Hospitals Report.”

The organizations analyzed approximately 100 million hospitalization records from nearly 5,000 hospitals, from the years 1999 to 2006 for this report. According to the report, the hospitals on the list “have demonstrated superior clinical quality for the most consecutive years.”

“Only 1 percent of the nation's hospitals achieve this level of clinical excellence. These hospitals are doing something very, very special that begins with the leadership and is infused throughout the hospital,” Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades' chief medical officer and lead study author, said in a statement.

The 50 hospitals are those ranked in the top 5 percent for clinical quality, based on risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complication rates drawn from Medicare data on 27 procedures and diagnoses from 1999 to 2006 by HealthGrades.

Harlan Krumholz, M.D., of Yale, an independent researcher criticized the HealthGrades report for what he called its lack of transparency.

“Their measures are not peer reviewed. They have not passed their measures through the National Quality Forum, the standard for all national organizations including federal agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They do not fully disclose their methods. They are not endorsed by any credible independent body. I would like for them to be a legitimate force for good -- and they could by getting their measures approved by NQF, making their methods transparent," Dr. Krumholz said quoted by MedPage Today.

The top 50 hospitals include nationally known facilities, such as Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the Cleveland Clinic. Interestingly, Johns Hopkins was not among the best-rated hospitals, not were any of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals.

 The HealthGrades report is available at www.healthgrades.com.