Hospital Responds To Abysmal Consumer Report

has responded to a recent Consumer Reports rating that put them among the lowest-performing hospitals in the region.

A spokesperson from North Shore-LIJ Health system said that transparency is incredibly important to the hospital system, and that much of the information in the report has already been shared with the public through the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“Whenever information contained in the various "hospital report cards" identifies a quality issue, we are already aware of it and working aggressively to resolve it,” the statement said. “We do this routinely as part of our ongoing internal operations and analysis (no matter how high our grades may be), so that we can provide the best patient experience possible.”

In this case, a high grade wasn’t the issue for the hospital.

the statement said that the infection rates indicated in the report were a lagging indicator that have already shown improvement based on internal numbers.

“The data publicly reported to NY State in 2010 … has Forest Hills Hospital’s infection rates falling within the New York State average. In the past two years (2010-2011), those numbers have shown significant, steady improvement -- to the point that the hospital's performance is now better than the state average.”

The hospital also pointed out that the data being used to judge the hospital came in years immediately following the closure of two hospitals nearby,

“Despite the increased influx of patients due to the closure of several hospitals in the Queens area, our most recent data shows that Forest Hills has experienced significant improvement in all quality metrics,” the statement said. “We are confident that this will be reflected in the results of the next reporting period.”

however, a handful residents said they have not been thrilled with Forest Hills Hospital’s care.