Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt has once again been recognized as a leader in pediatric health care, earning the title as the No. 1 children’s hospital in Tennessee and sharing the top spot in the Southeast, according to the 2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals rankings.
Monroe Carell — Middle Tennessee’s only freestanding children’s hospital as well as the region’s only comprehensive, nonprofit pediatric health care provider — has been featured on the Best Children’s Hospitals list for 19 consecutive years, dating back to the rankings’ launch in 2007. This year’s report highlights the hospital’s national rankings in 10 of 11 pediatric specialty programs.
For the fifth year in a row, Monroe Carell claimed the No. 1 position in the Southeast regional rankings, tying with two other hospitals. The Southeast region includes 19 ranked pediatric facilities across nine states: Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. Additionally, this year’s ranking marks the first time Monroe Carell came in at No. 20 overall at the national level, based on points received.
“We are honored to be recognized, for 19 straight years, as a leader in pediatric health,” said Meg Rush, MD, MMHC, President of Monroe Carell. “This is a testament to the unwavering dedication and compassion of our health care teams to provide hope and healing for the children and families we serve, sometimes in their most vulnerable moments.
“Being honored as the No. 1 children’s hospital in Tennessee and in the Southeast underscores our mission – to provide the highest level of quality care to every child. I am so incredibly proud of the steady advancement of programs, excellence in care and true dedication by everyone. I extend heartfelt congratulations to all Monroe Carell teams for this tremendous achievement.”
Monroe Carell’s pediatric specialties ranked in the Top 50 are cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology and GI surgery; neonatology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopaedics; pulmonology; and urology. Also, this year urology moved into the top 10 in the nation.
The latest rankings come just months after Monroe Carell opened the last floor of its four-floor expansion to serve even more of the region’s children, and it comes on the heels of the hospital’s announcement to create Tennessee’s first pediatric inpatient rehabilitation unit.
The annual Best Children’s Hospitals report ranks the top 50 pediatric centers in 11 medical specialties. Scores are calculated using clinical data from 118 hospitals through a detailed survey that looks at measures such as patient safety, infection prevention and adequacy of nurse staffing, as well as clinical care and outcomes. In addition, part of each hospital’s score is derived from reputational surveys of board-certified pediatric specialists. In the 2025-2026 report, 99 children’s hospitals were ranked in at least one of the pediatric specialties.
Learn more about Monroe Carell’s ranked specialties at childrenshospitalvanderbilt.org/best. The full Best Children’s Hospitals rankings can be viewed online at usnews.com/childrenshospitals
