{"id":410555,"date":"2026-01-16T08:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/410555\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T08:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:58:20","slug":"when-2026-hospital-rankings-will-be-released-for-long-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/410555\/","title":{"rendered":"When 2026 hospital rankings will be released for Long Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated hospital ratings<\/a> will roll out throughout 2026, offering Long Island patients new data on safety, outcomes and patient experience across the region\u2019s 20 hospitals.<\/p>\n

Produced by a mix of government agencies, hospital safety groups, nonprofit organizations and news outlets, the rankings can help patients spot trends and potential red flags.<\/p>\n

Health experts caution, however, that the scores are best used as a starting point \u2014 alongside guidance from physicians and other trusted sources \u2014 rather than as a final verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cHospital reports and rankings are some of the many resources patients can reference when considering various hospitals for a specific procedure or specialty,\u201d said Janae Quackenbush, a spokesperson for the Healthcare Association of New York State.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s when major hospital rankings are expected to be released in 2026 \u2014 and what experts say patients should know before using them.<\/p>\n

When will the 2026 hospital rankings be released?<\/p>\n

Healthgrades: January and November<\/p>\n

Healthgrades typically releases its rankings of America\u2019s top 250 hospitals in late January.<\/p>\n

The organization ranks hospitals<\/a>\u00a0by analyzing three years of Medicare survey and outcome data from more than 45 million patients at over 4,500 hospitals, combining procedure performance and patient risk to produce statistically predicted outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Thirteen<\/p>\n

Thirteen Long Island hospitals, including facilities run by Northwell Health, and Stony Brook Hospital, were recognized for their specialty care treatments from Healthgrades in November. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin<\/p>\n

\"Stony<\/p>\n

Stony Brook University Hospital Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. Credit: Barry Sloan<\/p>\n

The group also awards hospitals in specialty treatment and outpatient care. The 2026 rankings for both of those categories were released in November. Stony Brook Hospital and Northwell Health facilities\u00a0topped the list<\/a> of award winners in specialty treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsweek\u2019s World\u2019s Best Hospitals: End of February<\/p>\n

The news outlet \u2014 in partnership with global data platform Statista \u2014 ranks hospitals based on four metrics: peer recommendation, patient experience, hospital quality metrics and Statista’s Patient-Reported Outcome Measures survey, which measures how well hospitals implement patient feedback.<\/p>\n

Premier\u2019s 100 Top Hospitals: April or May<\/p>\n

Premier Inc. will release its 100 top hospitals rankings in the spring, according to a Premier spokesperson. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based health care company bases its rankings off nine measures distributed across five domains, including inpatient outcomes, financial health and patient experience.<\/p>\n

Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade:\u00a0Spring and fall<\/p>\n

Leapfrog typically releases biannual safety grades<\/a> in the spring and fall, measuring nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals using 32 evidence-based patient-safety measures.<\/p>\n

The most recent fall 2025 grades were released\u00a0Nov. 13<\/a>, and the latest spring 2025 grades<\/a> were published May 1. You can see how local hospitals fared in both those rankings in the database below.<\/p>\n

In 2026, Leapfrog will temporarily remove staff responsiveness from its criteria in line with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\u2019 plan to pause reporting on the statistic. Instead, the group will increase the weight of nurse communication.<\/p>\n

Emergency Nursing Association\u2019s Lantern Awards: July<\/p>\n

The Emergency Nursing Association gives Lantern Awards<\/a> to emergency departments based on applications submitted by teams of emergency department nurses, evaluating performance and outcome metrics, as well as healthy work environments. A spokesperson confirmed the 2026 awards will be published in late July.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In 2025, Emergency Nursing Association gave Lantern Awards to Huntington Hospital, above, and St. Joseph Hospital. Credit: Newsday\/J. Conrad Williams Jr.<\/p>\n

\"St.<\/p>\n

St. Joseph Hospital in Plainedge on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. Credit: Morgan Campbell<\/p>\n

ENA President Dustin Bass says the awards motivate emergency departments to improve care for patients and work conditions for emergency nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams with Lantern Awards, because of all the things they\u2019ve put in place, have lower turnover rates than the national average,\u201d Bass\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

In 2025, ENA granted Lantern Awards to Huntington Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System: July<\/p>\n

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assigns hospitals a score between one and five stars based on five criteria: mortality, safety of care, readmissions, patient experience and timely and effective care. The data is typically updated in late July. CMS didn\u2019t respond to Newsday inquiries seeking to confirm 2026 dates.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In 2025, CMS awarded five-star ratings to hospitals, including Mather. Credit: Newsday\/AJ Singh<\/p>\n

In 2025, CMS awarded five-star ratings<\/a> to Catholic Health\u2019s St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center, NYU Langone Hospital \u2014 Long Island and Northwell\u2019s Huntington,\u00a0Mather and\u00a0Glen Cove hospitals, Newsday reported.<\/p>\n

The CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System is the only hospital ranking service that is run by a federal organization. Gregory Alexander, a professor at Columbia University School of Nursing, recommends patients use the CMS Care Compare portal to cross-reference data, including readmission rates by condition and health care-associated\u00a0infections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. News & World Report\u2019s Best Adult Hospitals: August<\/p>\n

U.S. News & World Report will release its Best Adult Hospitals rankings in early August, according to a spokesperson for the publication. Other releases include Best Children\u2019s Hospitals in early October and Best Nursing Homes in mid-November. The publication will roll out its inaugural Best Home Health rankings, an assessment of in-home health care, in late February.<\/p>\n

U.S. News bases its rankings<\/a> on patient outcomes, hospital structure and clinical processes, producing lists tailored to specific conditions and specialties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe needs [patients] have are different, the type of care they need is different and the optimal hospital for them may be quite different,\u201d said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News & World Report.<\/p>\n

In 2026, the organization will assign greater weight to risk-adjusted outcomes for specialty rankings and will no longer source data from the American Hospital Association, including data on nurse staffing, intensive care unit specialists and patient services,\u00a0according to a post from U.S. News. Rankings will instead rely upon a patient-experience survey to measure nursing quality, which the outlet calls \u201ca more direct measure of nursing quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Healthcare Association of NYS spokesperson told Newsday that U.S. News discontinued its use of AHA\u2019s survey data because the organization decided last year to discontinue sale of its Annual Survey Database for use in hospital rankings.<\/p>\n

Tips for interpreting rankings<\/p>\n

While hospital rankings are a good launch point for understanding one\u2019s care options, experts advise patients not to choose a facility solely based on rankings, and to consult trusted physicians for care decisions.<\/p>\n

Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at Community Service Society of New York, says that it is important for patients to take rankings \u201cwith a grain of salt.\u201d However, she said some rankings provide critical information on a hospital\u2019s safety metrics, like health care-associated infection rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most important things that I would want to know is hospital-acquired infections,” Benjamin said. \u201c \u2018Did the hospital make you sicker? Were they tolerating malpracticing doctors?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Several rating systems report those metrics, including the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade and CMS\u2019 Five-Star Quality Rating System.<\/p>\n

Health care professionals acknowledge that many rankings rely on data that is six to 12 months old, meaning scores may not reflect a hospital\u2019s current performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatient safety has to be a day-to-day priority to get the best care,\u201d said Patricia Kelmar, senior director of health care campaigns for the advocacy group PIRG.<\/p>\n

Kelmar said one of the best ways to interpret rankings is to look at long-term trends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the data is going to be old, an important thing to consider is the trend,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you see that they\u2019re trending in the right direction, they\u2019re changing processes to get better next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rankings have pushed hospitals to improve care and safety, Benjamin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry does look at them,\u201d she said. \u201cThey do try to improve their statistics. There\u2019s a real merit to the exercise overall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated hospital ratings will roll out throughout 2026, offering Long Island patients new data on safety, outcomes and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[28,97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-410555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}