Peter Silver News Today

NEW HYDE PARK, NY – Three Northwell Health hospitals were named among the best in the country by Healthgrades, the leading resource consumers use to find a hospital or doctor.

Long Island hospital systems don't seem ready to reinstitute a mandatory masking policy for patients, staff and visitors, bucking a trend at emergency health facilities upstate.

Expert call for hospitals to integrate masking as part of routine policies in response to an uptick in COVID-19 admissions in the US.

But not everyone thinks changes are needed yet

Rankings and ratings are important to hospitals but the true measure of quality, according to a Northwell Health leader is about how people are treated and how they feel after receving care.

U.S. News & World Report, the federal government and others rate hospitals. Which ratings should patients trust, and how can they choose the right hospital for them?

Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Forest Hills Hospital is one of eight Northwell Health hospitals that earned a top ‘A’ rating for its patient safety, according to a

LI facilities made up nearly half of New York's top-ranked hospitals for safety, though one hospital was rated a D.

"The purpose of the NFR is to better understand how firefighters' occupational factors contribute to their risk of developing cancer," said a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Nassau, the 14,371 deaths reported in 2020 was a 31% spike from 10,968 a year earlier. In Suffolk, 15,626 died in 2020, a nearly 25% increase from 12,515 in 2019, according to state health department data.