NUMC dead last again

Daily Point

NUMC's rating makes it among 8% of lowest-scoring hospitals in U.S.

Long Island has some of the finest hospitals in New York, which remain the top employers in the region — with payrolls totaling more than 129,000. A recently released report compiled in February and collected between 2021 and 2025 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rated all hospitals in the country that accept payment from those federal programs, including 20 in Nassau and Suffolk.

Some of the measures CMS uses to check hospital performance are mortality, safety, patient experience and time of service, giving the hospital an overall score between 1 and 5, with 5 implying exceptional service. Northwell's Huntington and Glen Cove hospitals, as well as St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn and Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson received a score of 5. NYU Langone's pool of hospitals, including its hospital in Mineola (formerly Winthrop) and those based in New York City, were collectively rated 5. CMS gave Nassau University Medical Center a rating of 1 out of 5. It was the only hospital on Long Island with a low score. Take a look at how your hospital was rated below.

NUMC's rating makes it among 8% of the lowest-scoring hospitals in the nation, out of the 4,609 that are monitored. NUMC did poorly in its rate of readmission after surgery, and had a higher than national average rate of deaths among patients with serious treatable complications after surgery. It met expectations in the categories of providing follow-up care to patients and caregivers, and having lower than the state rate of time that patients spend in the emergency department (an average of 170 minutes compared with an average of 235 minutes in the rest of New York). NUMC also ranked poorly in the previous iteration of the report from CMS.

The hospital, now under the control of the state under new management and knee-deep in debt, recently announced it would temporarily close its maternity ward and only admit emergency delivery cases. CMS receives most of the data from the hospitals directly and some from patient surveys.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

A 'rep-off'

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

Invisible Bruce, all over again

The year was 1998 and the statewide election was for New York State comptroller. The Republican candidate, Bruce Blakeman, then the 43-year-old presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, faced an uphill battle against Democrat H. Carl McCall. Blakeman's biggest obstacle then? Voters outside Nassau didn't know him.

Nearly 30 years later, Blakeman's got the same problem as he mounts another uphill battle, this time against Democrat Kathy Hochul for governor. Before Blakeman can convince New Yorkers to vote for him, they have to know who he is.

A Tuesday Siena Poll showing 64% of New York State voters polled either have no opinion of Blakeman or don't know enough about him is a cringy moment for someone with a keen sense of the public's perception and an eye on the governor's mansion. And it hearkens back to Blakeman's first statewide run when voters had an even more lackluster feeling about him.

A New York Times article from days before the 1998 election put it bluntly: 84% of people queried for a Times/CBS News poll didn't know enough about Blakeman to form an opinion of him. McCall was unknown to just over half those polled. "If Mr. McCall remains relatively unknown, his opponent, Bruce Blakeman, might as well be the Invisible Man," the Times article read.

The article also detailed an awkward interaction between Blakeman and a Queens GOP leader when Blakeman campaigned in Howard Beach weeks before the election. "You are?" the GOP official asked. "Bruce," Blakeman replied. The GOP leader asked, "Bruce?" Blakeman replied, "Blakeman." Still unaware, the leader asked, "And you are running for?"

McCall beat Blakeman with 65% of the vote.

Flash forward to Blakeman's latest statewide endeavor, and the polls don't look charitable except for one glimmer of hope — independent voters. When asked how they would vote if the election was held today, 35% of independents said they would vote for Blakeman compared with 33% who said they would vote for Hochul. That's a huge area where Blakeman can mine votes since there are about 3.2 million independent voters in New York compared with 6 million registered Democrats and 2.8 million registered Republicans, according to February data from the state Board of Elections.

Maybe those poll numbers are why Blakeman didn't get a much-coveted photo-op with President Donald Trump from the Tuesday White House visit that he promoted. Instead, Blakeman posted a video of himself standing alone with a plaque for the White House Historical Association thanking Trump for the meeting to talk about "economic development, cutting utility costs and making for safer communities."

Indeed, Blakeman has been trying to get attention in social media pitches. About a week ago, in a Facebook video post, he connects with a punching bag — complete with Batman-style graphics and audio — to punctuate his point that he will rescue New Yorkers of all political stripes from Hochul's clutches.

In the video, Blakeman stands beside the bag and says: "Kathy Hochul has made you a punching bag." Then "POW" flashes across the screen as he jabs at the bag and an audio responding to the punch plays. "Punch number one, raise utility rates." POW again. "Punch number two, raise taxes." POW one last time. "Punch number three, let criminals out of jail. That ends when I'm governor."

Blakeman will need plenty more independents to vote for him in November or he'll take it on the chin and get KO'd like it's 1998 all over again.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

Subscribe to The Point here and browse past editions of The Point here.