8 Long Island hospitals earn 'A' safety ratings

Eight Long Island hospitals received “A” ratings from a nonprofit that focuses on patient safety, making up nearly half the state’s 17 top-ranking facilities.

One of them, St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center in Roslyn, has received As in every report since spring 2018, data released Wednesday by the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Leapfrog Group shows.

NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola also garnered an A rating, as it has in every report since at least fall 2020.

The other local top-rated facilities are Huntington Hospital, Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, Syosset Hospital and South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, all part of New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health.

Long Island patients should “feel confident about the quality and safety of the health care we provide and we want them to know we never settle, we always strive to do better every day,” Dr. Peter Silver, Northwell’s chief quality officer, said in an interview.

Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, Long Island’s only public hospital, received a D safety rating Wednesday, its 10th in a row. Maureen P. Shannon, senior vice president for quality and population health at NUMC, said the rating is “deceptive and does not effectively reflect a wide range of improvements at the facility that benefit our patients every day,” such as a 75% reduction in rates of an antibiotic-resistant infection known as MRSA. 

In addition to the individual hospital ratings, Leapfrog also reported Wednesday that on average, hospital infection rates have risen and patient satisfaction ratings have declined across the country.

The group releases its safety ratings twice a year, ranking hospitals on their performance preventing errors, accidents, injuries and infections. It ranks hospitals based on data reported to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and on its own surveys. CMS also has a separate rating system, which relies on a wider range of safety and health care quality metrics.

Silver said that across the nation, “hospital-acquired infections and other quality metrics deteriorated during the pandemic,” due to overcrowding and short-staffing. But, he said, “that part of the pandemic is over.” At Northwell hospitals, he said, infection rates and other safety data have been improving since 2020, in part because of measures such as analyzing each instance of a bloodstream infection to determine what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future. 

Sharing 'best practices' 

Dr. Jason M. Golbin, chief medical officer for Catholic Health, which includes St. Francis, said in a statement that the Rockville Centre-based system “continually strives to ensure top-quality care across all our entities.” When  hospitals excel in rankings, he said, “we share these best practices across all of our facilities to foster a continuity of exceptional care throughout our system.”

Catholic Health’s St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson and St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage earned Bs, and its Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip and St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown earned Cs. Both Mercy and Good Samaritan had ranked as Ds in the Leapfrog report released last November; at the time, Golbin said the facilities had improved their safety procedures, and he expected their ratings to rise.

At NYU Langone, Dr. Robert I. Grossman, CEO of the Manhattan-based health care system, said in a statement, “We remain devoted to continuously besting ourselves and improving the quality of care we deliver.”

Stony Brook University Hospital earned a B, while Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport both received Cs.

Stony Brook officials said in a statement that they "strive for continuous improvement to achieve the best outcomes. Stony Brook University Hospital has been recognized with excellent ratings from many other independent organizations and we continue to meet standards of quality and safety as set forth by accrediting bodies and government agencies.”

Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside received a C rating. Hospital officials said in a statement that South Nassau was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best regional hospitals.

"Patient safety is always at the top of mind at Mount Sinai South Nassau," they said. "We did not participate in this Leapfrog survey. Many independent nationally respected healthcare organizations have repeatedly awarded Mount Sinai South Nassau high marks for patient care, quality and performance."

A Rockville Centre-based patient advocate, David Fielding, said patients should feel comfortable asking health care providers to take steps such as washing their hands, since a large share of infections spread during interactions between providers and patients, he said.

Making sure providers take basic precautions, he said, is “the best way to reduce the spread of infections.”

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott is a reporter on the investigations desk. Since starting at Newsday in 2012, she has also covered real estate and the business of health care.