Hudson Valley Hospital Safety Grades 2020: The Best And Worst

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — A few hospitals in the Hudson Valley received top grades for safety while others didn’t quite measure up, according to new spring 2020 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group this week. Safety grades are released by the nonprofit organization twice per year, in the spring and the fall.

The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals focus on accidents, injuries and infections, and help to assess how well a facility prevents medical errors and other harm to patients.

It’s worth noting the metrics used to determine this spring’s hospital grades originated from safety data reported for periods ending in 2018 and 2019. The report does not take into account the strain the new coronavirus outbreak is placing on some hospitals where staff are experiencing shortages of drugs and protection equipment.

In the Hudson Valley:

  • Three hospitals received an A grade.

  • 14 hospitals received a C grade.

  • Two hospitals received a D grade.

(See detailed list below)

The latest grades show 33 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A” grade while 25 percent earned a “B.” Some 35 percent earned a “C” grade, 7 percent a “D” and less than 1 percent received an “F” grade.

Here are the Leapfrog Group's spring 2020 grades for hospitals in the Hudson Valley:

  • Northern Dutchess Hospital, Rhinebeck: A

  • Putnam Hospital Center, Carmel: A

  • White Plains Hospital, White Plains: A

  • HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley - Broadway Campus, Kingston: C

  • Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, New Rochelle: C

  • Montefiore Nyack Hospital, Nyack: C

  • Montefiore St. Luke's Cornwall, Newburgh: C

  • New York-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital, Cortlandt Manor: C

  • New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital, Bronxville: C

  • Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco: C

  • Orange Regional Medical Center, Middletown: C

  • Phelps Hospital, Sleepy Hollow: C

  • St. John's Riverside Hospital, Yonkers: C

  • St. John's Riverside Hospital - Dobbs Ferry Pavilion, Dobbs Ferry: C

  • St. John's Riverside Hospital - ParkCare Pavilion, Yonkers: C

  • St. Joseph's Medical Center of Yonkers, Yonkers: C

  • Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Poughkeepsie: C

  • MidHudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center, Poughkeepsie: D

  • Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla: D

Patch emailed representatives of both MidHudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center and Westchester Medical Center about their “D” grades. No response was immediately received. Patch will update the article when responses are received.

To determine each state’s grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.

Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

For a full description of the methodology, go here.

This article originally appeared on the Mid Hudson Valley Patch