3 Northwell hospitals recognized as national leaders in diabetes care by Leapfrog

Three Long Island hospitals have been recognized for their excellence in inpatient diabetes care.

Northwell Health’s Glen Cove, Plainview and Syosset hospitals are all being recognized by the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by large companies to improve health care quality and safety, and the American Diabetes Association. The three hospitals are among 36 hospitals to be honored nationally as part of the 2025 Recognized Leaders in Caring for People Living with Diabetes, and the only facilities in New York State.

Last year, the first year the survey was conducted, only Glen Cove Hospital was recognized.

“This achievement reflects our unwavering commitment to providing safe, high-quality care for our patients with diabetes, ensuring their safety and well-being during every stage of their hospitalization,” said Kerri Scanlon president of Glen Cove, Plainview and Syosset hospitals, in an email to Newsday. “This recognition promotes our ongoing dedication to advancing standards of care and supporting the health and safety of all our patients.”

In order to be named a Recognized Leader, a hospital must already have an A or B Patient Safety Grade score by Leapfrog and perform well in the advocacy group’s annual Hospital Survey. The hospital must then pass a series of metrics that includes the American Diabetes Association’s Standards of Care in Diabetes, as well as Leapfrog’s own standards for quality hospital care.

“Moving evidence-based standards of care into practice opens doors to improved quality outcomes for people living with diabetes,” said Dr. Osagie Ebekozien, the American Diabetes Association’s chief quality officer, in a statement.

The standards cover enabling patients to manage their own diabetes while in the hospital, having nurse-led protocol when they become hypoglycemic (dangerously low blood sugar), meals, insulin changes and comprehensive discharge planning, said Jean-Luc Tilly, Leapfrog’s program director for ambulatory surgical center survey and special projects.

“High-risk people with diabetes need to be discharged with a lot of information and education about their condition,” Tilly said. “They need guidance on how to manage it, care coordination and to be able to see a doctor outside the hospital right away.”

The number of recognized leaders doubled this year, Tilly said. He said that hospitals apply for this designation and that Leapfrog and the American Diabetes Association don’t report facilities that don’t perform well so they can privately work to improve.

Dr. Barbara Keber, the chair of family medicine at Glen Cove Hospital, who is based out of Glen Cove but noted that the three hospitals work together regularly, said the inpatient experience for diabetes patients can be very challenging.

“It’s more difficult in the inpatient setting to manage people’s diabetes care,” Keber said. “There’s so many other pieces of things that are going on. People come in with infections, they need other medications that might increase their blood sugar.”

All clinical staff at Northwell receive annual education for patients living with diabetes, Keber said. To optimize care for diabetes patients at the three hospitals, Northwell has a program for its staff that trains “Diabetes Champions” with advanced knowledge and skills to treat the disease. Champions at Northwell include doctors, nurses, physician assistants and even social workers. They also have access to educational resources for staff to help treat diabetes.

About 8 million Americans living with diabetes are hospitalized each year and approximately 30% of all inpatients nationwide have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

The Leapfrog Group was founded as a nonprofit in 2000 to promote transparency in the health care industry, according to the group's website. It publishes multiple data-driven reports a year for patients and members of the health care community.