Report Card Evaluates LI Hospitals
By Ridgely Ochs, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Jun. 18–Nassau University Medical Center scored lowest among Long Island’s 24 hospitals in an annual report card, although it ranked among the best in lower infection rates, outranking North Shore University Hospital at Manhasset and Stony Brook University Hospital, among others.
In a fourth annual report card released today by two state health care groups, most hospitals on Long Island and in New York City performed at the state average in the majority of 20 categories. The groups looked at trends such as mortality following specific procedures, and patient safety issues, such as infection rates or postoperative hip fractures.
The 631-bed NUMC scored lower than the state average in five measures: congestive heart failure mortality, acute stroke deaths, hip fracture mortality, postoperative pulmonary embolism, and postoperative sepsis, or blood infections. Last year, the hospital scored average in all categories in which it was rated. In 2004, the hospital scored low in three categories: stroke and pneumonia victims as well as those with gastrointestinal hemorrhages.
“We recognize that there are opportunities for improvements, and our new administration headed by Arthur Gianelli is committed to enhancing the quality of patient care for the communities we serve,” said hospital spokeswoman Shelley Lotenberg.
The latest analysis by the Alliance for Quality Health Care and the Niagara Health Quality Coalition, two statewide coalitions of businesses, consumer groups and health plans, is based on 2004 billing and discharge information from all hospitals in the state. The report card, available free to consumers at www.myhealthfinder.com, is one of a half-dozen published by various organizations, including the state.
“No one report should be a decision-maker,” said Christine Hendriks, spokeswoman for Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip. “It can’t be a conclusive source of information, although it can provide insights.”
Good Samaritan scored below the state average in three categories and better than the state average in three categories – the only Long Island hospital with three above-average ratings.
“Any effort to improve quality is helpful, and that’s where they’re coming from,” said William Van Slyke, spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, a nonprofit group that represents health care organizations and hospitals. But Van Slyke pointed out that the analysis relies on billing, not clinical, data, and is 2 years old. And, he said, a new measure added this year – infections due to medical care – did not exclude patients admitted to the hospital with infections.
Bruce Boissonnault, president of Niagara Health Quality Coalition, said that while “there is some noise in the measure,” the federal government tested it and found that patients admitted with infections were about equally distributed across all hospitals. In fact, he said, the measure more likely underestimates hospital-acquired infections because it doesn’t measure those infections acquired in the hospital that show up after discharge.
“I am very comfortable we are sorting between those who do better or worse,” he said. He added that 2004 data are the most recent available.
According to a 2000 report by the National Academies of Science’s Institute of Medicine, preventable hospital-acquired infections caused by medical procedures are responsible for 44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year in the United States.
Among 76 New York City hospitals, the Elmhurst Hospital Center scored lower than the state average in six categories, and New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn, scored lower in five categories.
Boissonnault noted the wide variation among hospitals statewide for infections due to medical care. Six Long Island hospitals – North Shore University Hospital at Manhasset, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, North Shore University Hospital at Glen Cove, Stony Brook University Hospital, Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola and Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre – scored lower than the average in this measure. NUMC was the only Long Island hospital to score above the state average in that category.
Spokesman Terry Lynam said that the North Shore-LIJ Health System has been aggressively trying to reduce hospital-acquired infections, placing handwashing dispensers in every hospital room and using teams to curtail infections. He speculated that the hospital system’s large number of nursing home patients, who are more susceptible to infections, might in part explain North Shore’s lower-than-average rating.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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