Purpose-built for USNWR Best Hospitals

Take command of your U.S. News rankings journey

Shield Tracker replaces fragmented spreadsheets and email chains with one unified platform โ€” purpose-built for managing the complexity of U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals survey submissions across every service line.

Dashboard
Service Lines
Endocrinology
Cardiology
Urology
Cancer
Neurology
Management
Reports
12
Service Lines
67%
Completion
3
Pending Review
6
Ranked
Endocrinology
85%
Cardiology & Heart Surgery
72%
Urology
45%
Neurology & Neurosurgery
92%
Built for the complexity of USNWR submissions
15
Ranked specialties supported
17+
Question types handled
22
Procedure & condition ratings
100%
Audit-ready documentation
The Challenge

Your ranking depends on a process held together by spreadsheets

Most hospitals manage their U.S. News submissions through a patchwork of Excel files, shared drives, and email threads. When survey questions span 12+ service lines and hundreds of data points, things fall through the cracks.

  • Version control chaos โ€” which spreadsheet is the latest?
  • No visibility into completion status until deadline pressure mounts
  • Year-over-year comparison requires manual data lookups
  • Review and approval happens over email โ€” no audit trail
  • Improvement actions get lost between survey cycles
Endocrinology_Survey_FINAL_v7.xlsx
3 weeks overdue
RE: RE: FW: Cardiology Section C data?
Data scattered in 4 threads
USNWR 2025 / Reviews / Final??
2 approvals missing
See It In Action

Walk through the platform

Watch how Shield Tracker streamlines every step โ€” from data entry to final submission.

app.shieldtracker.app/dashboard
Dashboard
Service Lines
Endocrinology
Cardiology
Urology
Management
Review
Analytics
Survey Dashboard
12
Service Lines
67%
Completion
3
Pending Review
6
Currently Ranked
Endocrinology
85%
Cardiology & Heart Surgery
72%
Urology
45%
Neurology & Neurosurgery
92%
Endocrinology โ€” Section C
C1.0 Chief of Service / Division Head
C1.1 Total inpatient discharges
2026
โ€”
2025
2,614
2024
2,390
All changes saved
Review & Approval
Setup
Data Entry
Review
Submit
KW
Dr. Karen Wilson ยท SL Lead
Approved
RC
Robert Chen ยท Quality Dir.
Pending
SM
Sarah Mitchell ยท Org Admin
Pending
Year-Over-Year Trending
ENDO
CARD
URO
NEURO
ONCO
Active Improvement Plans
Increase nurse certification โ€” Urology (Due Mar 15)
Document EHR integration โ€” Neuro (Due Apr 1)
ICU staffing ratio improvement โ€” Cardiology (Complete)
Platform Capabilities

Every tool your team needs, in one place

From first data entry to final submission and beyond โ€” Shield Tracker manages the entire USNWR lifecycle.

Streamlined Data Entry

17+ question types mirror the exact USNWR survey structure โ€” contact forms, numeric tables, percentage splits, yes/no matrices, and more. Auto-saves every keystroke.

Review & Approval Workflow

Phase-gated progression from Setup through Submission with role-based access, inline commenting, and locked submissions once approved.

Year-Over-Year Comparison

Current and prior-year responses shown side-by-side on every question, giving contributors instant context for data entry decisions.

Trending & Gap Analysis

Multi-year performance dashboards reveal patterns across service lines. Identify declines early and prioritize improvement efforts.

Improvement Plans

Create structured action plans with owners, milestones, and deadlines that persist between survey cycles. Never lose track of what you committed to improving.

Export & Reporting

Generate submission-ready exports in PDF and Excel. Executive summary dashboards give leadership instant visibility without wading through raw data.

Our team was drowning in spreadsheets every survey cycle. Shield Tracker gave us a single source of truth and cut our submission preparation time by more than half.

VP of Quality & Patient SafetyLarge Academic Children’s Hospital
Transparent Pricing

One plan. Everything included.

No per-user fees. No feature gating. Every organization gets the full platform.

Annual Subscription
$60,000 / year

Per organization. Includes up to 10 service lines with unlimited users and full access to every platform feature.

Additional service lines available โ€” contact us for details.

  • Up to 10 ranked service lines
  • All 17+ USNWR question types
  • Auto-save & year-over-year comparison
  • Multi-stage review & approval workflow
  • Multi-year trending & gap analysis
  • Improvement plan management
  • Executive summary dashboards
  • PDF & Excel export
  • Unlimited users & role-based access
  • White-glove onboarding & priority support
HIPAA Compliant Azure Hosted Dedicated CSM BAA Included
Schedule a Demo

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions from quality leaders evaluating Shield Tracker.

Shield Tracker includes 17+ specialized question renderers that mirror the exact structure of the USNWR survey โ€” contact information forms, numeric tables, percentage splits, yes/no matrices, multi-column data tables, file uploads, and more. Each question type is purpose-built to match what U.S. News expects, eliminating the translation errors that happen with generic survey tools or spreadsheets.
Yes. Shield Tracker uses role-based access control with four distinct roles: Data Contributor, Service Line Lead, Executive Viewer, and Organization Admin. Each service line has its own workspace, so Endocrinology and Cardiology teams can work independently with their own progress tracking, review workflows, and approval chains.
All data persists across survey years. When a new cycle begins, Shield Tracker automatically carries forward prior-year responses as reference data, making year-over-year comparison seamless. Improvement plans, action items, and historical trends are preserved so your team has full context for each new submission without starting from scratch.
Yes. Shield Tracker is hosted on Microsoft Azure with enterprise-grade security: encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access controls, comprehensive audit logging, and network isolation. We execute Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with all customers and maintain SOC 2 readiness.
Most organizations are fully onboarded in 2โ€“4 weeks. Our white-glove implementation includes configuring your service lines, importing historical survey data, setting up user accounts and roles, and a hands-on training session. We time implementations to align with your survey cycle.
Yes. Shield Tracker supports both the Best Hospitals (adult) and Best Children's Hospitals survey structures. The pediatric survey has its own methodology โ€” our platform handles both, and organizations can run them side by side within a single instance.
Ready to get started?

See Shield Tracker in action

Book a personalized demo tailored to your organization's service lines and USNWR submission process. We'll show you exactly how Shield Tracker works with your specialties.

  • 30-minute personalized walkthrough
  • See your service lines in the platform
  • No commitment required
  • Dedicated implementation support
Request a Demo
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