Four LI hospitals make national top-ranked list

Four Long Island hospitals made U.S. News and World Report's annual list of top hospitals in the country.

St. Francis Hospital in Flower Hill, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park and Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook all made the list, which evaluates hospitals' specialty care.

Of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that the magazine analyzed nationwide, 152 ended up being ranked in at least one specialty.

St. Francis made the list in three categories - it ranked 30th in heart and heart surgery, 34th in neurology and neurosurgery and 35th in geriatrics.

Alan D. Guerci, the hospital's president and chief executive, was pleased to have made the list several years in a row.

"To receive this recognition for four consecutive years is a testament to the physicians, nurses and staff who have worked tirelessly to establish St. Francis as one of the very best medical institutions in the nation," Guerci said in a statement on the hospital's website.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center ranked 17th in pediatric urology, 19th in psychiatry and 22nd in pediatric diabetes and endocrinology.

North Shore University Hospital was ranked 45th in geriatrics.

Terry Lynam, the North Shore-LIJ Health System's vice president for public relations, said the ranking "recognizes the quality of the care that the hospital provides."

Stony Brook University Medical Center was 48th in gastroenterology.

Basil Rigas, the medical center's chief of gastroenterology, said in a statement that making the list reflects the "superb abilities of our highly specialized physicians."

To compile its rankings, U.S. News and World Report said it scored the quality of inpatient care based on each hospital's teaching status, advanced technological capabilities, patient volumes, reputation with physicians, mortality statistics, nursing proficiency and other measures relevant to each specialty.