At nationally ranked Tampa General Hospital, USF physicians play leadership roles in eight of 10 medical specialties ranked top or high performing by U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News) has ranked Tampa General Hospital, USF Health’s primary teaching hospital, as one of one of the top 50 hospitals nationally in six medical specialties and the number three hospital in Florida for 2015-16.

USF Health academic partner Moffitt Cancer Center was ranked as the number one cancer hospital in Florida, and number 18 nationwide, based on the U.S News Best Hospitals for Adult Cancer Care rankings.

At TGH, where Morsani College of Medicine hospitalist Dr. Charles Edwards serves as chief of staff, USF Health doctors play a key leadership role in five of the six medical specialties recognized as top-ranked by U.S. News.  The six specialty areas, up from four top ranked last year, were: Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Nephrology, Orthopaedics, Pulmonology, and Urology.

USF Health core faculty members with key leadership roles in these nationally ranked specialties at TGH include:

Cardiology:  TGH is USF’s primary cardiology practice site, where most of the university’s inpatient and outpatient cardiac services and all inpatient cardiovascular clinical trials are provided.  John T. Sullebarger, MD, Chief of Cardiology. Medical Directors: Arthur Labovitz, MD, (Chair of USF Cardiovascular Sciences), Non-invasive Cardiology and Atrial Fibrillation services; Michael Berlowitz, MD, and Fadi Matar, MD, Catheterization Laboratory (co-direct); and Joel Fernandez, MD, Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.

Gastroenterology & GI Surgery:  Patrick Brady, MD, Chief, and Haim Pinkas, MD, Vice Chief of Gastroenterology.  Medical directors: Dr. Brady, TGH Gastroenterology Center; John Gonzalvo, MD, and Michel Murr, MD, Bariatric Surgery (co-direct); John Jacobs, MD, Gastroenterology Quality; and Jorge Marcet, MD, Colorectal Surgery.

Nephrology:  Elias Doumit, MD, Vice Chief of Nephrology; and Alfonso Campos, MD, Medical Director of Pediatric Dialysis.

Pulmonology:  Mark Rumbak, MD, Chief of Pulmonology/Critical Care; Medical directors: William McDowell Anderson, Sleep Disorders Center; David Solomon, MD, Adult Step Down and Pulmonary Diagnostic & Respiratory units; Brice Taylor, MD, Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU).

Urology: David Hernandez, MD, chief of urology.

In addition, Florida Orthopedic Institute President Roy Sanders, MD, chief of orthopaedic surgery at TGH, was recently named chair of the Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine.

USF Health physicians also have a leadership presence in three of the four medical specialties that received “High Performing” ratings by U.S. News:

Cancer: Lawrence Berk, MD, chief or radiation oncology; Medical Directors: Dr. Berk, Radiation Oncology; and Mitchel Hoffman, MD, Gynecologic Oncology.

Geriatrics:  Medical Directors: Stephanie Taylor, MD, Acute Care for Elders (ACE); and Howard Tuch, MD, Palliative Care.

Neurology & Neurosurgery:  Rossitza Chichkova, MD, chief, and Derrick Robertson, MD, vice chief, of Neurology; Fernando Vale, MD, chief, and Donald Smith, vice chief of Neurosurgery. Medical directors: Siviero Agazzi, MD, Neuro Intensive Care Unit and Neuro Trauma Unit; Selim Benbadis, MD, Seizure Monitoring Center and Neurodiagnostic Laboratory; William Burgin, MD, Stroke Program; Dr. Chichkova, EMG Laboratory; Sarah Gaskill, MD, Pediatric Neurosurgery; David Rose, MD, Neuro Critical Care; Dr. Vale, Spinal Surgery; and Harry van Loveren, MD, Neurosurgery.
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All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, the primary hospital partner for pediatrics training of USF medical students and residents, was nationally ranked in two categories – cardiology and heart surgery and pulmonology.

The national Best Hospitals rankings, now in their 26th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients — those whose illnesses pose unusual challenges due to underlying conditions, procedure difficulty or other medical issues.

U.S. News evaluates hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Less than 3 percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for Best Hospitals 2015-16 were nationally ranked in even one specialty.

The full rankings are available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals.