Plainview Hospital Gets 'C' Grade; Northwell Responds

PLAINVIEW, NY — Just three Long Island hospitals received "A" grades in hospital safety, according to new fall 2019 ratings released Thursday by the Leapfrog Group. Plainview Hospital was not among them, instead receiving a "C" grade, as it has for much of the last several years.

The Leapfrog Group's rating system, released twice a year, focuses entirely on errors, accidents, injuries and infections. On Long Island, in addition to the hospital that received "A" grades, four received "Bs,"13 received "Cs" and two received "D" grades. None received the lowest F grade.

Plainview Hospital performed below average in the following areas, according to Leapfrog's ratings:

Infections

• MRSA infection
• Infection in the blood

Problems with Surgery

• Death from serious treatable complications
• Dangerous blood clots

Practices to Prevent Errors

• Doctors order medications through a computer
• Safe medication administration
• Communication about medicines
• Communication about discharge

Safety Problems

• Dangerous bed sores

Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff

• Communication with doctors
• Communication with nurses
• Responsiveness of hospital staff

A spokesman for Northwell Health told Patch on Thursday that all of its hospitals are transparent about sharing quality and performance information with the public.

"Whenever information contained in the various 'hospital report cards' identifies a potential quality issue, the public can be assured that we are already aware of it and working aggressively to resolve it," Northwell said in a statement. "We do this routinely as part of our ongoing internal operations and analysis (no matter how high our grades may be), so that we can provide the best patient experience possible."

The health system added that it takes such report card grades seriously, whether it agrees with the methodology or not. The grades are used to improve patient care.

"Because the data is frequently from prior years, we have already identified those areas that may need improvement and implemented programs to improve the performance where it is needed," Northwell said. "As always, we continue to work hard, pay attention to detail and be vigilant about patient safety and satisfaction."