By Jo McMullen / KVSC reporter

U.S. News and World Report has released its rankings of best hospitals and Centracare-St. Cloud Hospital has been rated in the Top 50 nationwide in two specialty areas.

The recognitions distinguishes the hospital for its cardiology and heart surgery and pulmonology & lung surgery performance.

The 33rd annual Best Hospitals rankings are designed to help patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive care. For the most recent ratings, U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions.

The cardiology & heart surgery  was ranked ranked #30 out of 800 qualifying hospitals and pulmonology and lung surgery ranked #44 out of 1,700 hospitals reviewed.

Executive Director of CentraCare Heart & Vascular Center Phil Martin says the ranking comes with great honor, especially after a year of performing a number of ‘first in world’ or ‘first in United States’ procedures at the Heart Center.

For the fourth year in a row, St. Cloud Hospital ranked third overall in Minnesota for Best Hospitals, behind Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

Each hospital is evaluated by U.S News using a variety of measures such as survival rates, patient experience, level of nursing care and how successfully each hospital helps patients get back home.