These NYC Hospitals Named Best For Patient Safety, Experience

NEW YORK CITY — Just six New York City hospitals are among the nation's best for patient safety and experience, according to new rankings.

The Hospital For Special Surgery made the cut on both the patient safety and experience awards lists released Tuesday by Healthgrades.

Only 79 of 444 hospitals nationwide received both awards.

The honors — the 2024 Patient Safety Excellence Award and the 2024 Outstanding Patient Experience Award — recognize hospitals for high-quality care, prevention of serious safety events and high marks in patient surveys.

Five New York City hospitals were on the safety list. They are:

• Northwell Health's Lenox Hill Hospital
• Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Medical Center
• New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System's Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
• Hospital For Special Surgery
• New York City Health & Hospital's Queens Hospital Center

The sole hospital in the city on the patient experience list was the Hospital For Special Surgery.

The Patient Safety Excellence Award was presented to the top 10 percent of hospitals, based on an analysis of required data reporting in 13 patient safety measures. Read more about the methodology.

Healthgrades said that if all hospitals observed the same protocols as those in this category, they could have avoided more than 97,000 patient safety events between 2020 and 2022, the report said. The analysis revealed that patients treated at recipient hospitals are less likely to experience the following safety events compared to patients treated at non-recipient hospitals:

• In-hospital falls resulting in fracture (approximately 52 percent less likely)
• Collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest (approximately 56 percent less likely)
• Pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital (approximately 67 percent less likely)
• Catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital (approximately 71 percent less likely).

For the patient experience awards, Healthgrades reviewed Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient survey data. Read more about the methodology. The 388 award recipients in this category represent the top 15 percent of eligible U.S. hospitals that provided best-in-class patient experiences during the January 2022 to December 2022 study period.

Experiences that made a difference to patients included communication with both doctors and nurses, as well as clear communication about follow-up care upon discharge.