The U.S. News released its 22nd annual Best Hospitals rankings this week which specifically points out the best of the best hospitals in categories such as "Honor Roll," "Most Connected" and "Top Doctors," which will release next week and list the top 30,000 physicians in the United States. Just 17 facilities nationally earned spots on the Honor Roll, which signifies the highest level of medical excellence. Most Connected Hospitals means those with the most advanced electronic medical records system, which is a major mark according to the Obama Administration's standards.

So who in fact made the Honor Roll? Here's the list of the only hospitals to make the cut: John Hopkins, Baltimore Massachusetts General, Boston Mayo Clinic, Minnesota Cleveland Clinic, Ohio Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, California NY Presbyterian University Hospital, New York UCSF Medical Center, California Bringham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Barnes Jewish Hospital, Missouri University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pennsylvania University of Washington Medical Center, Washington University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Michigan Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Tennessee Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York Stanford Hospital and Clinics, California The Best Hospitals rankings judge medical centers on their competence in high stakes situations. For example, a hospital ranked in cardiology and heart surgery, one of 16 specialties in which centers were evaluated, likely has the expertise and experience to replace a faulty heart valve in a man in his 90s. Most hospitals would decline to perform major surgery on elderly patients, as they should if they aren't up to speed on the special techniques and precautions required and don't see many such patients.

A good way to determine how well a hospital deals with a medical challenge is to evaluate its performance across a range of challenges within the specialty. U.S. News ranks hospitals in 16 different specialties, from cancer to urology. This year, only 140 of the 4,825 hospitals evaluated performed well enough to rank in even one specialty.

In terms of the Most Connected, we do live in a digital age, however hospitals, doctors and nurses still rely on reams of paper charts and antiquated systems to track patient health, order tests and treatments, and perform other essential duties. While many of these professionals provide quality medical care, they do so without the use of a suite of technologies broadly known as electronic medical records, or EMRs, that could make patients safer and their care more efficient.

Only a small number of hospitals have readily embraced EMRs and use them to connect healthcare providers to one another and to the information each needs to do his or her job.

U.S. News developed Most Connected Hospitals to highlight that group of institutions, which are both digitally forward and clinically excellent. Interesting enough, several children's hospitals made the best of the best list.

Here are your top ten: Mayo Clinic, Minnesota University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Wisconsin Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, California Children's Hospital, Massachusetts Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Children's Medical Center, Texas Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Virginia Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles, California Northshore Evanston Hospital, Illinois Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills, California For links to the full reports, click HERE.

Sy Kraft