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MUSC's DDC ranks among top hospitals MUSC has once again been named one of the nation’s best hospitals in the U.S. News and World Report with special recognition awarded to the Digestive Disease Center with a ranking of 39. This is the 10th consecutive year that the DDC has been listed. The 17th annual America’s Best Hospital issue is available on newsstands.    Out of 5,189 hospitals evaluated, only 176 scored high enough to be ranked in one of 16 specialties. In order for a hospital to be eligible it must meet at least one of the following requirements: membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals, medical school affiliation, and availability of at least 9 out of 18 key technologies.   Once a hospital passes the initial requirement, its overall performance is broken down into three equal categories: reputation, mortality and other factors. Reputation is calculated through a survey sent to a sampling of randomly selected board-certified physicians. The doctors were mailed a survey form and asked to list the five hospitals considered the best in their specialty. Approximately 47 percent of the 3,200 doctors contacted responded to the survey.   Mortality is shown as a ratio; below 1.00 means better than expected, above 1.00 is worse than expected. The ratio compares the number of Medicare patients with certain conditions who died in the hospital in 2002, 2003 and 2004, with the expected death rate in relation to the severity of their condition considered.   The third part of the score depends on quality-of-care measures, including nurse-to-patient ratio and the number of key technologies available.   For a listing of hospital rankings, visit the U.S. News and World Report Web site at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/tophosp.htm.   For information on MUSC’s DDC, go to http://www.ddc.musc.edu/.     Friday, July 14, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.