5 Long Island hospitals earn top federal ratings; 1 ranks among nation's lowest

Five Long Island hospitals have ranked among the nation’s best while one ranked at the bottom, according to an annual survey by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The CMS, a federal agency, awarded five-star ratings to NYU Langone Hospital — Long Island, Catholic Health’s St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center, and Northwell’s Glen Cove Hospital, Huntington Hospital and Mather Hospital.

Ten percent of the 4,609 star-rated hospitals nationwide earned five-star status, based on data gathered by CMS between 2020 and 2023, the agency said.

The CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System is the only hospital ranking service that is run by a federal organization, and allows prospective patients to view specific data about hospitals, including how a facility is faring in a specific expertise, according to the agency.

Five hospitals received four-star ratings: Stony Brook University Hospital, Northwell's North Shore University Hospital, Catholic Health’s St. Charles Hospital, St. Catherine of Siena Hospital and Northwell’s Plainview Hospital.

One hospital, Nassau University Medical Center, received one star. Officials there could not be reached for comment. The state-run hospital recently came under fire after officials spent thousands on dining and travel, even as the facility faced more than $1 billion in debt, Newsday reported.

The CMS system uses 46 data-driven measures to rank hospitals, including readmission rates, hospital-acquired infections and patient safety. 

Hospital rankings can help patients choose where to seek treatment and are often used for marketing. But according to Patricia Kelmar, senior director of health care campaigns for the advocacy group PIRG, the CMS Star Quality Rating System carries significant weight for hospitals.

“Hospitals care about this,” Kelmar said. “They don't want to be the hospital that has the lowest star rating in their community. The more people refer to the star ratings, the more power they have to impress upon that facility to improve their performance."

Dr. Peter Silver, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Northwell Health, said the rankings inform patients about the quality of care and also motivate staff.

“Who doesn’t want to be the best hospital, and who doesn’t want to provide the best care for their community?” he said.

Signs of improvement

Some Long Island hospitals have seen their star rankings rise this year.

James Iorio, director of media relations for NYU Langone Hospital — Suffolk, said the hospital worked to improve its rating from one to two stars and enhanced patient experience in the process.

“The hospital has substantially improved patient care” by reducing average patient stays by more than a day and lowering emergency room wait times by 70%, to an average of less than 10 minutes, Iorio said.

Three Catholic Health hospitals also gained a star: Good Samaritan Hospital improved from one to two stars, St. Catherine of Siena from three to four stars and St. Joseph from two to three stars.

“We quote every patient, every encounter, every time, and we do it relentlessly,” said Catholic Health’s chief medical officer Dr. Jason Golbin. “That leads to a continued trajectory of improvement.”

Golbin said incremental gains matter because they show patients that hospitals are improving in specific measures.

Navigating the stars

Kelmar acknowledged that while the CMS Care Compare website makes the ratings public, it takes some digging to get the most value.

Patients must first search for the hospital to see its overall star ranking, then click through to view individual measures and how the hospital performed.

“It is the easiest tool that we have today to understand, based on measures, scientific best practices, and how our hospitals are doing,” she said.

CORRECTION: NYU Langone Hospital — Suffolk improved its rating from one to two stars. A previous version of this story misstated the hospital’s name and rating.