NYC Hospital Safety Grades 2020: The Best And Worst

NEW YORK, NY — New York City was hammered by the worst coronavirus outbreak in the United States, which flooded city hospitals throughout the five boroughs with sick patients through March and April. But not all hospitals are created equal, according to new spring 2020 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group this week.

Safety grades are released by the nonprofit organization twice per year, in the spring and the fall. The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals across the country focus on accidents, injuries and infections, and help to assess how well a facility prevents medical errors and other harm to patients.

Hospitals in New York City consistently grade at mediocre levels. This spring, Leapfrog deemed just two of 45 facilities in the city worthy of an "A" and just six worthy of a "B." Twenty-two New York City hospitals graded by Leapfrog earned a "C" and 15 earned a "D." There were no "F" grades.

It’s worth noting the metrics used to determine this spring’s hospital grades originated from safety data reported for periods ending in 2018 and 2019. The report does not take into account the strain the new coronavirus outbreak is placing on some hospitals where staff are experiencing shortages of drugs and protection equipment.

Here are the grades New York City hospitals were given by the Leapfrog Group:

1. NYU Langone Medical Center (Manhattan): A
2. NYC Health + Hospitals - Bellevue (Manhattan): D
3. Mount Sinai West (Manhattan): B
4. Mount Sinai Beth Israel (Manhattan): D
5. New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center (Manhattan): C
6. Northwell Health System - Lenox Hill Hospital (Manhattan): D
7. New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan: C
8. The Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan): B
9. NYC Health + Hospitals - Metropolitan (Manhattan) : A
10. Mount Sinai (Queens): C
11. Mount Sinai Morningside (Manhattan): B
12. The Brooklyn Hospital Center (Brooklyn): C
13. NYC Health + Hospitals - Woodhull (Brooklyn): B
14. Wyckoff Heights Medical Center (Brookyln): D
15. NYC Health + Hospitals - Harlem (Manhattan): C
16. NYC Health + Hospitals - Elmhurst (Queens): D
17. New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital (Brooklyn): D
18. Interfaith Medical Center (Brooklyn): C
19. NYC Health + Hospitals - Lincoln (Bronx): C
20. New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center (Manhattan): C
21. NYC Health + Hospitals - Kings County (Brooklyn): C
22. Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center (Brooklyn): D
23. SUNY Downstate Medical Center University Hospital of Brooklyn: C
24. NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn: B
25. Maimonides Medical Center (Brooklyn): D
26. Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital (Queens): C
27. BronxCare Health System (Bronx): C
28. Brookdale Hospital Medical Center (Brooklyn): D
29. New York-Presbyterian (Queens): C
30. St. Barnabas Hospital (Bronx): C
31. Flushing Hospital Medical Center (Queens): C
32. New York-Presbyterian The Allen Hospital (Manhattan): C
33. Mount Sinai (Brooklyn): D
34. New York Community Hospital: D
35. Richmond University Medical Center (Staten Island): D
36. Jamaica Hospital Medical Center (Queens): C
37. NYC Health + Hospitals - Queens (Queens): B
38. Montefiore Einstein Campus (Bronx): C
39. NYC Health + Hospitals - Jacobi (Bronx): D
40. NYC Health + Hospitals - North Central Bronx (Bronx): C
41. Montefiore Moses Campus (Bronx): C
42. Coney Island Hospital (Brooklyn): C
43. Montefiore Wakefield Campus (Bronx): C
44. Northwell Health System - Staten Island University Hospital (Staten Island): D
45. St. John's Episcopal Hospital (Queens): D

To determine each state’s grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.

Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

For a full description of the methodology, go here.