Baltimore has been dethroned. For 21 years in a row, U.S. News has ranked Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital as the No. 1 hospital in America. But not this year. In the latest Best Hospitals rankings, Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital came out on top, ranking No. 1 on the U.S. News Honor Roll for the first time ever. Another Boston medical center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, also made this year's Honor Roll, which consists of the 17 hospitals that rank among the best in the country in at least six specialties.

Only the Big Apple, with three Honor Roll hospitals, has more great medical care options than Boston. In fact, the New York metro area, which includes parts of neighboring New Jersey, is home to 56 hospitals that earned a U.S. News ranking of some kind this year. Baltimore's and Boston's rosters of 20 ranked hospitals each pale by comparison. To be ranked in its metro area or state, a hospital had to be recognized as high-performing in at least one of the 16 specialties U.S. News evaluates. The New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell claimed the highest rank in both New York City and New York state, as well as the No. 7 spot on the Honor Roll.

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Two other major cities, Chicago and Los Angeles, are medical hubs in their own right, with more than 30 medical centers meeting the rigorous U.S. News criteria for being ranked. Thirty-five high-performing hospitals earned a ranking in Chicago, and nine of them were also ranked among the best in the nation in at least one medical specialty. One Chicago-area hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, snagged a coveted spot on the Honor Roll. In L.A., 32 high-performing hospitals earned a regional ranking, 10 of them a national ranking, and one -- Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center -- made the Honor Roll.

Only three other metro areas in America have enough strong hospitals to see 20 or more of them ranked. Of these, Detroit boasts the most extensive options for medical care, with 26 high-performing hospitals and one Honor Roll hospital, the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers in nearby Ann Harbor. The Washington, D.C. metro area, which includes parts of Virginia and Maryland that are near the capital, has a solid 23 high-performing hospitals.

Philadelphia, with 21 such hospitals, rounds out the list of the country's most medically endowed cities. And Philly can make a rare claim to fame. Like Boston, it has a No. 1 hospital of its own: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which is tied for the top spot on the Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll. The other city that hosts a hospital with that honor? Boston, naturally.

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