Stony Brook named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for 2020
Stony Brook University Hospital has been named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for 2020 by Healthgrades – the only hospital on Long Island to receive this distinction for the past two consecutive years.
“Receiving this rating for 2019 and 2020 is the result of Stony Brook’s ongoing commitment to high-quality patient care,” said Michael Bernstein, PhD, Interim President of Stony Brook University and head of the hospital’s governance team. “It’s also a testament to the excellence of our physicians, nurses and hospital staff.”
Healthgrades was the first organization in the country to rate hospitals based on actual patient outcomes using publicly available data from Medicare. The organization analyzes more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide to examine in-hospital complication rates and mortality rates. This year’s ratings are based a review of Medicare inpatient data from fiscal years 2018, 2017 and 2016.
“This level of achievement is rare for an academic medical center and teaching hospital,” said Meadow P. Jaime, MA, Director of Quality Solutions for Healthgrades. “That’s because these are learning environments for medical professionals which can create more variation in patient outcomes.”
For patients, this means a fundamental difference in outcomes. If all hospitals nationwide performed similarly to America's 100 Best Hospitals, an estimated 170,783 lives would be saved each year. Only five hospitals in New York State were named among America’s 100 Best Hospitals this year.
“This rating places us in the top 2 percent of all hospitals nationwide, which is the equivalent of receiving an A+ on our annual report card for quality care,” said Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, Senior Vice President, Health Sciences, and Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. “More importantly, it measures results that make a significant difference in the lives of our patients every day.”
Last fall, Stony Brook was also named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for 2020 by Healthgrades for stroke care, cardiac care and coronary interventions. The hospital has earned those honors for stroke care and coronary interventions for five consecutive years. It received the cardiac care award for the sixth consecutive year.
According to Healthgrades, patients treated at hospitals rated in the top 2 percent for 2020 had a 26.6 percent lower risk of dying, on average, compared to patients who were not treated at America’s 100 Best Hospitals. For specific health conditions, patients treated at these hospitals had a:
- 22.6 percent lower risk of dying from a heart attack
- 28 percent lower risk of dying from a stroke
- 33.9 percent lower risk of dying from heart failure
- 25.5 percent lower risk of dying from sepsis
“These are very meaningful differences in clinical outcomes for our patients,” said Carol A Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, Chief Executive Officer for Stony Brook University Hospital. “They are the direct result of the high-quality care provided by our teams every day. Simply put, these are outcomes that save lives.”
Stony Brook is the only hospital in the northeast* region of the U.S., and one of only two hospitals in the nation, to achieve 2020 America’s 100 Best rating in all four categories: America’s 100 Best Hospitals overall and America’s 100 Best in Cardiac Care, Coronary Intervention and Stroke Care.
“These awards are not achieved by accident,” Jaime said. “This recognition is validation of the effort and focus that Stony Brook University Hospital’s dedicated teams have devoted to high-quality care and clinical excellence.”
*Northeast region is defined by the Census Bureau as Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York & Pennsylvania