10 Long Island hospitals ranked among best in New York State by Newsweek

Ten Long Island hospitals ranked among the best in the state, according to a new report.

They made up one-third of the 30 hospitals ranked as New York’s best by the national magazine Newsweek and Statista, a data firm, which rated 800 hospitals across the country for quality, reputation, and patient experience and outcomes.

The high rankings come as demand for health care grows as Long Island's population ages, Newsday reported. Rankings can help patients evaluate a hospital's reputation and safety, but experts cautioned that consumers should look at many factors when picking a hospital.

Of the 10 hospitals, seven are run by New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, including North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson, Glen Clove Hospital and Huntington Hospital. All of those hospitals also made Newsweek's 2025 list. 

This year's list also included Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead and South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, both part of the Northwell system, and St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown.

Stony Brook University Hospital and St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson also made the cut this year and Newsweek's 2025 list. 

A representative for Stony Brook University Hospital did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for St. Charles and St. Catherine declined to comment.

Newsweek and Statista scored hospitals using data collected between 2024 and 2025 from hospital accreditation organizations, the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs and a nationwide survey of medical professionals, according to Newsweek's report.

North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center — two Northwell hospitals — ranked third and fifth, respectively, out of the 30 New York State hospitals. 

Peter Silver, senior vice president and chief quality officer for Northwell Health, credited the company’s practice of looking at internal hospital data and comparing it to national benchmarks each month to improve safety.

“There is an expectation among Long Islanders and all New Yorkers that the health care they receive is the highest quality,” Silver said. “That’s our drive.” 

How to judge the rankings

Rankings can be a helpful starting point for consumers looking to research hospital quality, but they shouldn’t be a patient’s only consideration, said Patricia Kelmar, a senior director of health care campaigns with U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy group. 

She cautioned that all rankings are based on historical data, and that hospital conditions — like how busy an emergency room is — change by the day. Kelmar encouraged consumers to do a deeper dive by looking at ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which lets users drill down into specific topics, such as maternal health.

“These general rankings don’t serve you well in figuring out what you think is most important,” Kelmar said. 

Consumers should also look at Leap Frog’s ratings, which focus on patient safety and are more user friendly than the federal Medicare and Medicaid ratings, said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York.

She cautioned that general rankings incorporate factors that matter less to patients, like a hospital’s reputation.

“The top priority from the patient’s perspective should be safety,” Benjamin said.

Demand for health care rises

The rankings come as the health care industry grows on Long Island and nationally, as the Baby Boom generation ages. The health care and social assistance industry, which includes home care workers, employed 263,611 people in the third quarter of 2025, a 27% increase compared with a decade ago, said Shital Patel, principal economist at the New York State Department of Labor's division of policy, strategy and research.

“Generally, older adults spend more on health care which drives up demand for health care services and more workers to meet that demand,” Patel said.

Hospital networks on Long Island have expanded as well. Northwell, which employs roughly 57,000 people on Long Island, completed a merger with Connecticut-based Nuvance in 2025 to become the largest not-for-profit health care system in the Northeast, Newsday reported. Melville-based independent health care network Allied Physicians Group also grew last year after acquiring two pediatric offices in Lynbrook and Elmont in June, Newsday reported.