Hospitals need resources — not rankings

NEW YORK CITY, July 6, 2012 – A new Consumer Reports survey gives almost all NYC hospitals low marks compared to the national average. But the report misses the point: our hospitals and our patients don't need rankings. They need resources.

Reimbursement and funding problems are the heart of this issue for urban hospitals.

New York City’s public and community hospitals are our city’s safety net. At New York’s 11 public Health and Hospitals Corproation (HHC) hospitals, no one is turned away – regardless of ability to pay. The City’s public hospitals deliver quality care, even to those who have no insurance or whose coverage is inadequate.

With less funding and fewer insured patients, hospitals are forced to stretch their nursing and patient care staff more thinly. As nurses, we know that if a hospital is properly funded and staffed, patients will get proper care. The solution is for all public services — from our schools to our hospitals — to receive the level of public funding they need and deserve.

We share the criticisms and concerns of the methodology of the survey raised by our colleagues in the medical community and by many of the hospitals. Recent improvements in the HHC system are ignored by the survey, for example.

The survey gave almost all NY hospitals – public and private – low marks. The highest score in New York, on a 1-to-100 scale, went to NYU-Langone, with a score of 56. The second highest went to Peninsula Medical Center, which was closed earlier this year by the NY Department of Health.

The Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act will help provide more resources to our safety-net hospitals. But that alone is not enough. We need a fair tax system, where the rich pay their fair share, so we can provide healthcare with the right level of resources in every community.

The New York State Nurses Association is the voice for nursing in the Empire State. With more than 37,000 members, it is New York’s largest professional association and union for registered nurses. The association represents registered nurses, and some all-professional bargaining units, in New York and New Jersey. It supports nurses and nursing practice through education, research, legislative advocacy, and collective bargaining.

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