Best of 2001: Best Luxury Hospital

UCSD Thornton Hospital
9300 Campus Point Drive, La Jolla
858-657-7000

The John M. and Sally B. Thornton Hospital isn't just a sick bay, it's a palace. Only 125 beds on three floors, no wards, two-room suites with phones, TV and computer jacks, a chef to prepare the best of what nurse says you can have, and visiting hours that you, the patient, get to determine. It was built with profit in mind, to make up for the indigent patients the UCSD system is obliged to treat. Private rooms run about $900 a night, semi-private (with two beds in the room) $700, and the suites somewhere north of $1000.