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Austin hospital earns healthy ranking from prestigious U.S. News & World Report

St. David’s Medical Center recently earned the No. 8 spot in Texas and No. 37 nationally on U.S. News & World Report's 2022-23 Best Hospitals list.

Rendering courtesy of St. David's HealthCare

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2022-23 Best Hospitals list, naming Austin's St. David’s Medical Center as the No. 8 best hospital in Texas and No. 37 nationally.

Not the first accolade for the local facility, St. David's Medical Center's national ranking came courtesy of the hospital's post-procedure work and physical therapy in its rehabilitation department, which landed the facility among the top 51 out of 4515 hospitals nationwide.

Rankings for the annual U.S. News study are based on scores in patient care, patient safety, outcomes, nursing, advanced technology, and reputation.

One data point not used in the Best Hospitals rankings, but worthy of note: The hospital also earned four out of five stars in patient satisfaction, which measured how patients felt about their hospital stay and discharge overall.

At the top of the list was Houston's Medical Center, which boasts the best adult and children’s hospital in Texas and the best cancer center in America.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center earned No. 1 in the nation for cancer care. For those keeping track, MD Anderson has been considered in the top two cancer hospitals in the U.S. since the U.S. News launched the survey in 1990.

Elsewhere in Texas
Other Houston hospitals earned high rankings as well, with Houston Methodist Hospital coming in at No. 15 nationally and No. 1 in Texas for the 11th year in a row. Notably, U.S. News has ranked Houston Methodist Hospital in at least one specialty for the past 30 years. Houston's Texas Children’s Hospital ranked No. 2 overall in the Best Children’s Hospitals ranking, remaining top in Texas and the Southwest, and at No. 1 in heart treatment for the sixth year in a row.

Also boasting top honors in the state is the Menninger Clinic, which tied for tenth place on U.S. News’ list of best psychiatric hospitals, making it the all-out best in Texas.

Dallas-Fort Worth is home to the No. 2 hospital in Texas, per U.S. News. UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas also ranked especially well nationally in urology (No. 11), cardiology and heart surgery (No. 14), diabetes and endocrinology (No. 18), pulmonology and lung surgery, (No. 21), and cancer (No. 25).

Not far down the list is Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, which ranked No. 4 in Texas. One Baylor department ranked nationally: gastroenterology and GI surgery department, No. 34.

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Self-driving Roller Coaster

More self-driving cars expected to roll out in Austin for 2025

Photo courtesy of Waymo via KVUE

Various brands offering self-driving cars are on-and-off in Austin.

Expect to see more self-driving rideshare vehicles, also known as robotaxis, on Austin roads next year.

Robotaxi company Waymo, which you may have already seen on Austin's roads, is partnering with Uber. At some point next year, customers will be able to use the Uber app to call a self-driving ride.

Austin-based company Avride is in the testing phase and plans to roll out its robotaxis next year.

Currently, Volkswagen ADMT and Amazon's Zoox are in the testing phase in Austin, while Hyundai's Motional is in the mapping phase.

Last year, robotaxi company Cruise paused operations in Austin after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company's permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state. And last week, General Motors said it would no longer fund the company because of the time and resources needed.

This way of getting around has come with its safety concerns and issues. The city is tracking those concerns. According to the Transportation Department, the problems span from blocking the roads and parking in front of people's homes for weeks with lights beaming through their windows, to actual wrecks.

Since July 2023, robotaxis have been involved in 75 incidents. Only 21 of those incidents happened in 2024. It's important to note that Cruise has not been operating in Austin this year.

Since July 2023, driverless rideshare vehicles have been involved in 22 near collisions, eight collisions and seven instances where driverless taxis ignored directions from the Austin Police Department (APD).

According to the data, at least four of those Austin police incidents happened in recent months. The issues varied from driving through police checkpoints, to malfunctioning and getting stuck at an APD road closure near pedestrians, causing safety concerns.

A Waymo spokesperson said their vehicles have gesture recognition capabilities, which they've been training APD officers on using.

As the report shows, sometimes it does not work and Waymo said it is working to improve that. The spokesperson said that as of just last week, Waymo's First Responder Program has been independently verified by TÜV SÜD, making Waymo the first autonomous vehicle (AV) company to receive third-party validation for our emergency response protocols. They also said the data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities in the places where the company currently operates.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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