COOKEVILLE – When it comes to something as critical as brain and spine surgery, only the best-trained doctors will do. Fortunately, patients in Cookeville don’t have to travel to large cities to find them, because Tier 1’s two neurosurgeons ? Dr. Joseph Jestus and Dr. L.R. Rodriguez-Cruz – were trained at hospitals that continue to be among the top-ranking neurosurgical training institutes in the nation.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where Jestus completed his residency in neurological and spinal surgery, currently holds the #2 spot in U.S. News & World Report’s Top-Ranked Hospitals for Neurology & Neurosurgery, and it has been ranked consistently in the top three for the past several years.

New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, where Rodriguez-Cruz received his undergraduate and medical degrees, is currently ranked #4 on the same list.

To be nationally ranked, a hospital must excel across a range of tough cases within a given specialty. This year, only 148 of the 4,793 hospitals evaluated met such criteria and performed well enough to rank in even one specialty.

Tier 1 Neurosurgery, part of Tier 1 Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Institute, brings state-of-the-art neurosurgical techniques to the Upper Cumberland and surrounding areas for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders affecting the brain, carotid artery, spinal cord and nervous system, as well as degenerative spine conditions.

To see the U.S. News & World Report rankings, visit http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/neurology-and-neurosurgery