Mistake-Prone New York Hospitals Feature in State Watch List

A state list of hospitals that made potentially deadly safety mistakes features New York City facilities, the Post reports. The report, which uses 2009 data, cited an incident where doctors gave a patient the wrong blood transfusion at Jamaica Hospital. It also found 18 area hospitals that mistakenly left surgical tools or sponges in patients after operations. Columbia-Presbyterian was reported to have left instruments or sponges in patients five times--the second highest rate in the state. The highest number was at Highland Hospital in Rochester where doctors were reported to have left foreign objects in patients 9 times.

The report also stated that "the rate of sepsis infections after surgery was worse than the state average, as was the rate of collapsed lungs" at Columbia-Presbyterian. The hospital released a statement saying they are "committed to providing high quality health care and we are regularly ranked as one of the top hospitals in the country and the top hospital in New York by well-established surveys."

It's not all bad for the city's hospitals; the safest hospital list includes "Lenox Hill, NYU Langone Medical Center and Montefiore's Weiler Division in The Bronx." Columbia-Presbyterian's Weill Cornell campus also made the "safest" list.

The Post provides information on five city hospitals that were cited for serious lapses:

1. St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital

1-4 deaths in low-risk patients

2. Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital
Five instances of a foreign body left in a patient

3. Beth Israel Medical Center
Poor rates of heart attack deaths

4. Brookdale University Hospital
Poor rates of postoperative hip fractures

5. Jamaica Hospital Medical Center
Wrong blood or blood type given to a patient.

You can check out more findings here. The site also features the result of a patient survey that asks people who stayed overnight at a hospital to rate the facility. The state's highest-rated hospital is Westfield Memorial while Brooklyn's own Brookdale University Hospital & Medical center came in last in the patient survey.

City health scare [NYP]

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