What’s better than being named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for two consecutive years? Being named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for three consecutive years.
That’s right. Stony Brook University Hospital has been named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for 2021 by Healthgrades – the only hospital on Long Island to receive this distinction for the past three consecutive years.
“This is the equivalent of receiving another A+ on our annual report card for quality care,” said Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, Senior Vice President, Health Sciences, Stony Brook Medicine. “It places us among the top 2 percent of hospitals nationwide. More importantly, it measures results that make a significant difference in the lives of our patients every day.”
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 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Receiving this award is unusual for academic medical centers, which treat very complex patients, often with greater severity of illness, which can adversely impact hospital readmission and mortality rates.
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.
According to Healthgrades, patients treated at hospitals rated in the top 2 percent for 2021 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 outcomes are the direct result of the high-quality care provided by our staff every day,” said Carol A Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, Chief Executive Officer for Stony Brook University Hospital. “Their daily commitment to our patients drives these outstanding results, which literally save lives.”
Only five hospitals in New York State were named among America’s 100 Best Hospitals this year. Last fall, Stony Brook was also named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for 2021 by Healthgrades for stroke care, cardiac care and coronary interventions. The hospital has earned those honors for stroke care and coronary interventions for six consecutive years. It received the cardiac care award for the seventh consecutive year.
In fact, Stony Brook is the only hospital in the northeast* region of the U.S., and one of only five hospitals in the nation, to achieve 2021 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 types of consistent awards are not achieved by accident,” said Meadow P. Jaime, MA, Director of Quality Solutions for Healthgrades. “This recognition is validation of the ongoing effort and focus that Stony Brook’s dedicated teams have devoted to providing 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