Northwell Health Responds to ‘C’ Grades in Hospital Safety Rankings

Northwell Health says they are actively working to resolve their quality issues just one day after the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by employers and health care providers, announced its fall 2016 hospital safety rankings.

All Northwell Health hospitals received “C” grades from Leapfrog, including:

• Huntington Hospital
• Glen Cove Hospital
• Plainview Hospital
• Syosset Hospital
• Southside Hospital
• Peconic Bay Medical Center
• Long Island Jewish Medical Center
• North Shore University Hospital

Northwell Health released the following statement regarding the rankings:

“All Northwell Health hospitals are transparent in sharing quality and performance information with the public. Whenever information contained in the various ‘hospital report cards’ identifies a potential quality issue, the public can be assured we are already aware of it and working aggressively to resolve it. We do this routinely as part of our ongoing internal operations and analysis (no matter how high our grades may be), so that we can provide the best patient experience possible.”

Leapfrog ranked 138 New York hospitals. Just one Long Island hospital, St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, received an "A" grade.

The Leapfrog Group uses "30 evidence-based measures of patient safety," including patient injuries, accidents and infections. Numerical scores are converted into letter grades.

“Whether we agree or disagree with the methodology used for one report card over another, we take hospital report cards seriously and use them for their intended purpose -- to improve the quality of care to our patients,” Northwell Health said in a statement. “Because the data is frequently from prior years, we have already identified those areas that may need improvement and implemented programs to improve the performance where it is needed. As always, we continue to work hard, pay attention to detail and be vigilant about patient safety and satisfaction.”

Image of Huntington Hospital courtesy of Northwell Health