NYC Hospital Safety Ratings Unveiled: See The Best, Worst In City

NEW YORK CITY — Just three New York City hospitals got an "A" for patient safety while many, many more got middling or borderline failing grades, according to a new study.

The Leapfrog Group's 2023 hospital safety grades released Wednesday paint a decidedly mixed picture for city hospitals.

Out of 44 hospitals in the city, 10 received "A" or "B" safety grades from the independent nonprofit watchdog.

The majority — 26 — received "C" grades, according to the list. Eight got a "D," the group found.

Here's how New York City's hospitals fared, according to Leapfrog.

‘A’ Hospitals

• Long Island Jewish Forest Hills
• NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn
• NYU Langone Hospitals (First Avenue, Manhattan)

‘B’ Hospitals

• Lenox Hill Hospital
• Mount Sinai Queens (Long Island City)
• New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
• New York-Presbyterian Queens
• NYC Health Hospitals - Metropolitan
• Queens Hospital Center
• The Mount Sinai Hospital

‘C’ Hospitals

• Downstate Health Sciences University, University Hospital at Downstate (Brooklyn)
• Jamaica Hospital Medical Center
• Mainmonides Medical Center
• Montefiore Wakefield Campus
• Mount Sinai Beth Israel
• Mount Sinai Brooklyn
• Mount Sinai Morningside
• Mount Sinai West
• New York Community Hospital
• New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center
• New York-Presbyterian, Lower Manhattan Hospital
• New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital
• New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center
• NYC Health & Hospitals - Harlem
• NYC Health and Hospitals - Jacobi
• NYC Health and Hospitals - Lincoln
• NYC Health and Hospitals Bellevue
• NYC Health and Hospitals Elmhurst
• NYC Health and Hospitals Kings County
• NYC Health and Hospitals North Central Bronx
• NYC Health and Hospitals Woodhull
• Richmond University Medical Center
• St. John's Episcopal Hospital (Far Rockaway)
• Staten Island University Hospital - North Campus
• The Brooklyn Hospital Center
• Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

‘D’ Hospitals

• BronxCare Health System
• Brookdale Hospital Medical Center
• Flushing Hospital Medical Center
• Interfaith Medical Center
• Montefiore Einstein Campus
• Montefire Moses Campus
• NYC Health and Hospitals - South Brooklyn Health
• St. Barnabas Hospital

The Leapfrog Group uses an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on more than 30 measures of patient safety. Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors.

New York ranked 40th among states based on percentage of “A” hospitals, according to Leapfrog.

Neighboring New Jersey, by contrast, ranked first for "A" hospitals.

The study also highlighted a growing problem nationwide: high rates of three health care-associated infections, or HAIs.

Those infections — methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) — spiked to a five-year-high, according to the study.

“The dramatic spike in HAIs reported in this Safety Grade cycle should stop hospitals in their tracks—infections like these can be life or death for some patients,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in a statement. “We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience.”

Check out more information on Leapfrog hospital grades here.

Patch's national desk contributed to this report.