NY Hospitals Receive Failing Grades from Federal Government; Coney Island Gets One Star Rating

Coney Island Hospital (CIH) received a one-star rating on The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s (CMS) new rating system, after city officials boldly defended the facilities quality of care. The CMS released their first report card in July 2016 on the 3,600 hospitals in the country, after a three month delay due to criticism. The system grades hospitals on a one-to-five star scale, based on the following seven categories: mortality, safety of care, readmissions, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care, uses of medical imaging and patient experience.

CIH is a one of 11 city-run public hospitals, which all received low ratings on the grading system; eight of the hospitals received a rating of one-star while the remaining three received two-stars. Over the past year, there have been several articles published on the less than favorable care the hospital provided, including the death of a patient due to misdiagnosis in the emergency-room. Dr. Ramanathan Raju, President and CEO of NYC’s municipal-hospital system, fought against these accusations by saying he has used CIH himself for 15 years and sends his children there. In May 2016, Raju told hospital staff not to be “distracted by misguided attempts to tear down the essential work of the public-hospital system.”

NYC’s private hospitals did not fare much better; out of 22 private hospitals, 16 received a one and two star rating. CMS’ report card showed most of the city’s hospitals received below average grades for high rates of readmission, timeliness of care, and patient’s own reported experiences. Health care advocates referred to these grades as a “wake up call” as readmission’s are a serious issue in New York. City hospital officials disagreed with these findings.  Jennifer Bender, spokeswoman for municipal hospital stated the American Hospital Association’s rating system “unfairly penalizes teaching hospitals and hospitals providing care for the most vulnerable populations.”

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Website Resources:

http://nypost.com/2016/08/03/coney-island-hospital-ranks-dead-last-in-national-ranking/