Photo courtesy of Inova
Inova L.J. Murphy Children's Hospital
The children's hospital that Northern Virginia families rely on for the most complicated newborn cases has again been named one of the best in the country.
Inova L.J. Murphy Children's Hospital ranked No. 32 in the nation for neonatology in U.S. News & World Report's 2026-27 Best Children's Hospitals rankings, released Tuesday. The hospital also placed No. 3 among Virginia hospitals and tied for No. 16 in the Mid-Atlantic region.
It is the hospital's strongest showing in recent years. Inova ranked No. 39 for neonatology in the 2024-25 rankings and No. 37 last year.
For Alexandria parents, the ranking is closer to home than the Falls Church address suggests. Inova Alexandria Hospital on Seminary Road runs its own 16-bed NICU, staffed around the clock by board-certified neonatologists and outfitted with Giraffe OmniBed incubators, which combine a radiant warmer and an isolette in one bed. Newborns who need more than that unit can provide — in Inova's description, micro-preemies or severely ill babies — are moved to the NICU at Inova L.J. Murphy Children's Hospital, on the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus.
Inova makes those moves with its own neonatal transport team, a pediatric critical care ambulance the health system calls a NICU on wheels, which can reach any infant born within 200 miles by ground or air.
The Falls Church unit is the only Level IV NICU in Northern Virginia, the highest designation a newborn intensive care unit can hold. It has 108 beds and includes the region's only Small Baby Unit, 15 dedicated rooms for infants born before 29 weeks or weighing less than 2.2 pounds. It was also the first NICU in the country to earn The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval for prematurity care.
“Being recognized among the nation's Best Children's Hospitals is an incredible honor and a reflection of the expertise, compassion and commitment of our entire pediatric team,” said Joanna Fazio, vice president of Inova's pediatric service line.
“Every day, families place their trust in us to care for their children, often during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” Fazio said. “This recognition reinforces our commitment to providing the highest quality, safest and most advanced care to every child and family we serve.”
To build the rankings, U.S. News worked with RTI International, a North Carolina research firm, collecting and analyzing data from 114 children's hospitals and surveying thousands of pediatric specialists. Hospitals are measured on clinical outcomes, how closely they follow established best practices, and the level and quality of resources tied directly to patient care.
“Earning a place on U.S. News' Best Children's Hospitals list is a testament to Inova Children's dedication to clinical excellence and patient safety,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News.
The rankings are intended to help parents, working with their children's doctors, weigh where to go for a serious illness, a high-stakes surgery or a complex medical condition.
The full 2026-27 rankings are posted at USNews.com.
