C fore conducted the study in Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai between January 2 and May 10, 2002. Hospitals offering specializations in the areas of cardiology, gastroenterology, infertility, oncology, ophthalmology and mental health were chosen to be ranked. A preliminary survey was conducted among doctors to identify top hospitals, parameters and corresponding weightage for evaluation. Five parameters were identified: competence of doctors (weightage: 0.3), infrastructure & facilities (0.3), value for money (0.2), attention to patients (0.1) and cleanliness (0.1). The weightages were based on the importance given to each parameter by doctors surveyed. A questionnaire was designed and, after pretesting, administered to doctors of different specializations. In all, 679 doctors were contacted. The respondents were asked to rate the hospitals they were familiar with on a 10-point scale. Each hospital was evaluated by at least 10 doctors for a particular area of specialisation. The hospitals were ranked based on the aggregate score.

A similar exercise was followed to rank the top five hospitals in different disciplines in the country.