The U.S. News and World Report gave the University Health System top marks in its latest set of rankings released last week.

The magazine, which ranks the country’s best hospitals each year, named the University’s Hospitals and Health Systems the 14th best in the United States. The honor is the second year in a row that the University’s Hospital has held the spot and is the 16th year in a row that the organization has been on U.S. News and World Report’s honor roll list — which represents the top 0.3 percent of health systems able to most capably confront the most demanding and complex medical challenges.

In an interview last Thursday, Ora Pescovitz, the University’s executive vice president for medical affairs, praised UMHS employees for their hard work that has allowed the University to maintain its position on the leader board.

“We’re thrilled with the rankings because they demonstrate continued excellence and quality of care in all measures,” Pescovitz said. “I think they affirm the outstanding quality of our faculty and staff.”

Pescovitz added that being among U.S. News and World Report’s top-ranked hospitals was a great honor for the University, but was also good news for the entire state.

“It’s a significant achievement, because there were thousands of hospitals competing to be on that honor roll,” she said. “It’s good news for the citizens of the state of Michigan to have an asset and a resource of this caliber in their backyard.”

Hospitals that came out in front of the University in the rankings included Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic.

And while University officials may have their eyes set on improving their overall ranking in the future, Pescovitz made it clear that significant challenges lie ahead for the health system due to the ongoing health care reform.

“Ultimately, with health care reform in the future, I think what the challenges of the future will bring will be to improve safety and quality, decrease costs and improve access,” Pescovitz said.

Many of the hospital’s specialties rose to that challenge this year, with all 16 specialties evaluated receiving honors from U.S. News and World Report, including many that moved up in the rankings from last year.

Doug Strong, the director and CEO of the University’s Hospitals and Health Centers, said in a statement released last week that he was happy with the newly released rankings.

“We are pleased to be nationally recognized in so many areas as a result of the hard work of our faculty and staff,” Strong said. “It is our wide-ranging strength in so many specialties that keeps us high on the list year after year.”

Among the top ranked specialties of the University’s Hospitals and Health Systems were Ear, Nose and Throat, which ranked ninth among the more than 4,800 hospitals evaluated, and Urology and Heart and Heart Surgeries, both ranking as the 11th best in the country.