I am proud to report that 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. This recognition places SBUH in the top two percent of more than 4,500 hospitals assessed nationwide. What a great way to start the new year!
Healthgrades is an independent group that analyzes hospital quality measures and is the leading online patient resource for comprehensive information about hospitals and physicians. Every year, Healthgrades analyzes three years of Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data to produce a detailed report on mortality and complication rates, offering patients data-based resources to make informed healthcare decisions.
This year’s report analyzed patient records from nearly 4,500 acute-care hospitals nationwide, assessing hospital performance relative to 32 common conditions and procedures. It identified the 100 best-performing hospitals across all conditions or procedures evaluated within 10 clinical service areas.
Stony Brook University Hospital was recognized for providing the highest quality of care and consistently achieving superior clinical outcomes across the majority of common inpatient conditions and procedures. According to Healthgrades, “This level of performance is extremely rare for a major academic medical center and teaching hospital because academic medical centers typically treat very complex patients with greater severity of illness, which can adversely impact hospital re-admission rates and mortality rates.”
For patients, this means a fundamental difference in outcomes. From 2016 through 2018, patients treated in hospitals achieving the award had, on average, a 25.2 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award, as measured across 19 rated conditions and procedures for which mortality is the outcome. And during that same period, if all hospitals performed similarly to those achieving the Healthgrades America's 100 Best Hospitals Award, 170,783 lives could potentially have been saved.
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.
Exceptional outcomes are only possible when a hospital commits to high standards of quality and continuous improvement throughout the organization. These awards demonstrate SBUH’s commitment to providing quality care to our patients and their family members. I am grateful to our physicians, nurses and all of our care teams for your hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence.
I’d like to commend all Stony Brook Medicine faculty and staff for your commitment to driving better patient outcomes and high quality care!
Carol