The 2003 Index of Hospital Quality

The Honor Roll
To lend additional perspective, we have constructed a measure called the Honor Roll to
indicate excellence across a broad range of specialties.
To be listed on the Honor Roll, a hospital must rank at least two standard deviations (SDs)
above the mean in at least six of the 17 specialties. A hospital’s ranking in the Honor Roll
is based on points, assigned as follows:
C If a hospital ranks between two and three SDs above the mean in a
specialty, it receives one point.
C If a hospital ranks at least three SDs above the mean, it receives two points.
Using standard deviations above the mean as the criteria for inclusion in the Honor Roll sets
a threshold for overall excellence. The Honor Roll also gives an indication of the relative
distances between the best hospitals which is not possible to determine solely from the
rankings.