NASSAU COUNTY, NY — A new hospital safety report released Wednesday shows that 7 hospitals in Nassau County earned “A” grades for their ability to protect patients from often preventable harm.
The Leapfrog Group’s Spring 2026 Hospital Safety Grades are a biannual ranking that assigns “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” letter grades to all general hospitals in the United States based on their ability to protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections.
“A” hospitals in Nassau County are:
“B” hospitals are:
According to the safety grades, 1 hospital, Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, received a “D” ranking.
New York ranks 24th among the 40 states to have received an “A” grade in the spring 2026 report card. Overall, New York has moved up in rank, compared to last year’s 30th spot.
Peter Silver, MD, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Northwell Health, which has 7 A-rated hospitals across LI, said Northwell is constantly looking for ways to improve its already high standard of care.
“Northwell is mission-focused on delivering the best possible clinical outcomes, and the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade ratings show those results in a tangible way,” Silver said.
Leapfrog said its biannual report — the only national ratings program focused exclusively on patient safety — shows improvement in 17 measures, including health care-associated infections, medication safety systems, and patient experience.
“The good news is that hospitals across the country are making meaningful strides in patient safety and helping save countless lives,” Leah Binder, the group’s president and CEO, said in a news release.
After peaking in fall 2022, several health care-associated infections declined sharply, according to the report. Central line-associated bloodstream infections fell by half; catheter-associated urinary tract infections dropped 45 percent; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections declined 42 percent; and serious intestinal infections linked to antibiotic use went down 30 percent.
The report also found gains in medication safety. Use of computerized physician order entry systems, which can flag prescribing errors, rose from 66 percent of hospitals meeting Leapfrog standards in 2018 to 90 percent in 2025. Adoption of barcode medication administration systems increased from 47 percent to 93 percent over the same period.
Patient experience scores, measured through Medicare and other federal surveys, have improved since hitting a low in fall 2023, rising by about one point on average across five safety-related measures, including communication with nurses and doctors and responsiveness of hospital staff.
Among states, Connecticut, Virginia, and South Carolina had the highest share of A-rated hospitals, followed by Utah, Montana, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, and California. Montana and Maryland entered the top 10 for the first time, while Florida rose from 15th place in fall 2025 to seventh. No hospitals in North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, or Wyoming received an “A” grade.
About 450 hospitals were not assigned grades after a federal court ruling in South Florida involving several facilities that did not participate in Leapfrog’s 2024 or 2025 survey. The group said it applied the change nationwide and is appealing the decision while reviewing its methodology.
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