St. Francis Hospital Is Ranked One of the Best Hospitals in the U.S. in a New Report Published in AARP The Magazine

Roslyn, New York, April 1, 2009 – St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center is the only hospital on Long Island and one of only four hospitals in the New York metro area to be rated as one of the nation’s best hospitals in a report published in the May/June issue of AARP The Magazine. The publication bills itself as the world’s largest-circulation magazine with more than 34 million readers and the definitive voice for Americans aged 50 and older.

The new study was conducted for AARP by Consumers’ Checkbook, a nonprofit research organization. The three other hospitals in the region that were recognized in the report are New York-Presbyterian/Columbia, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and NYU Langone Medical Center.

“This latest recognition is yet another affirmation of the outstanding medical care patients can expect at St. Francis and the world-class excellence of our staff,” said Alan D. Guerci, M.D. President and CEO. “We are pleased to be acknowledged in a magazine that millions of Americans rely on for important information.”

The nonprofit watchdog group ranked hospitals based on five measures. St. Francis surpassed its regional counterparts on three of those measures: patient satisfaction, proper tests and procedures, and rate of complications.

The survey was part of the research for a new book from Consumer’s Checkbook (www.checkbook.org) called Consumers’ Guide to Hospitals, which uses volumes of government safety statistics and data on death and complication results, along with survey results, to compare and rank hospitals in the country’s 53 largest metro areas. An interactive map of the top hospitals can be found on the AARP magazine’s website (www.aarpmagazine.org/health).

Contact:
Paul Barry, 516-705-6657, paul.barry@chsli.org
Rosemary Gomez, 516-705-6656, rosemary.gomez@chsli.org