Mt. Sinai, NYU maternity teams lauded in U.S. News & World Report rankings

Mount Sinai South Nassau and NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island were the only LI hospitals to receive a “high performing” rating in maternity care from U.S. News & World Report, the media company said. 

U.S. News and World Report uses government data to create its “Best Hospitals for Maternity Care” rankings.

The assessment gauges how much hospitals reduce cesarean sections, early elective deliveries, newborn complications and episiotomies or cuts made at the opening of the vagina, as well as promote breastfeeding and transparency around racial health disparities, according to U.S. News & World Report.

About three years ago, Mount Sinai South Nassau started giving clinicians quarterly reports on these sorts of indicators, according to Dr. Alan Garely, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the Oceanside hospital. Decades ago, the medical establishment expected a woman who had a C-section to deliver that way during future births, but that's no longer recommended unless medically necessary, Garely said. Doctors have been focused on limiting C-sections and episiotomies because recovering from such surgeries is often painful and time-consuming.

“We've really focused a lot on minimizing bad patient outcomes,” said Garely, who said the report cards show clinicians “whether they're outliers or whether their numbers are within what we would consider the standard of care.”

About 150 clinicians work in maternal care units at Mount Sinai South Nassau, which delivered 2,008 babies last year, Mount Sinai said. The maternity unit has 26 private rooms, as well as a six-bed Level II neonatal intensive care unit that treats premature babies and those with special needs. 

NYU Langone was assessed across its campuses, with the review covering its Mineola facility and other locations. Tisch Hospital, NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn and NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island collectively deliver more than 15,000 babies a year, the system said. 

Elsewhere on Long Island, although Catholic Health is closing its maternity ward at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown, Catholic Health and other health systems in the region have recently invested in upgrading their labor, delivery and recovery units.

Catholic Health finished a $4 million renovation of the maternity unit at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson in 2019 and an $8.5 million upgrade at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip last year. Northwell Health has undertaken a $212 million initiative to upgrade maternal units at hospitals on Long Island and in neighboring communities. 

“We [Northwell] look at the quality of care at all of our maternity units and are extremely proud of those outcomes because we take care of the most complex cases and high-risk mothers-to-be,” spokesman Jason Molinet said. “Northwell has developed a robust obstetrical outcomes database that tracks multiple factors." 

Stony Brook Medicine officials said their team runs the only state-designated regional perinatal center in Suffolk County. The classification is given to centers equipped to handle the most risky and complicated cases. 

“Doctors from across Suffolk transfer their most challenging, high-risk newborn cases to our neonatal intensive care unit,” officials said. 

CORRECTION: A prior version of this story didn't indicate that NYU Langone also was ranked as "high performing" by U.S. News & World Report. 

By Sarina Trangle

sarina.trangle@newsday.comSarinaTrangle

Sarina Trangle covers affordability and cost of living issues and other business topics. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at amNewYork.