Edited by: TJVNews.com
As the world marks the second anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic this month, Lenox Hill Hospital has been named one of the leading hospitals for early coronavirus care by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems. The list – which includes only 24 medical institutions across the nation – honors hospitals that provided exceptional care to their patients and community while managing the highest volumes of Covid-19 cases during the first wave of the pandemic.
Despite the uncertainty, complex challenges and limited resources at the beginning of the pandemic, these hospitals excelled in their response to a previously unknown virus thanks to the tireless efforts and persistence of heroic frontline health workers. To compile the list, Healthgrades utilized inpatient data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for almost every hospital in the country.
“This special recognition from Healthgrades highlights the incredible dedication of our nurses, doctors and other frontline staff to caring for the Lenox Hill and New York communities during one of the most challenging times we have faced in recent history,” said Mark Schiffer, MD, executive director of Lenox Hill Hospital. “These courageous, compassionate and resilient heroes have saved thousands of lives and have gotten us closer to ending this devastating pandemic.”
The 24 stand-out hospitals treated more than 750 Covid-19 patients from January through September 2020 and achieved a below-average mortality rate of less than 24.6%. Lenox Hill Hospital, along with Northwell Health’s two other Manhattan sites – Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital (MEETH) and Lenox Health Greenwich Village (LHGV) – have treated nearly 12,000 Covid-19 patients from the beginning of the pandemic to date.
“It was just so powerful to see everybody want to help, everybody want to take part. Everybody always said ‘Yes,’” said Daniel Baker, MD, medical director for Lenox Hill, MEETH and LHGV. “We didn’t experience this concern of ‘We won’t get the help we need,’ because everybody just came running and said ‘What can we do?’ It was a really powerful moment for showing what we could do together as a group, as a hospital, as a community.”
The beginning of March marks the two-year anniversary of the first confirmed Covid-19 case in New York City, the initial epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Since then 79.3 million Americans have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus and more than 960,000 people across the nation – nearly 67,000 of them New Yorkers – have died from the virus. Northwell Health, the largest health care provider and private employer in New York State, bore the brunt of the first wave of the pandemic. The health system has treated more than 300,000 Covid-19 patients.
The development of the Covid-19 vaccines has been a major milestone in the effort to end this devastating pandemic. Northwell Health made history when it vaccinated the first people in the United States in December 2020. Lenox Hill Hospital’s chairman of emergency medicine, Yves Duroseau, MD, was among them as the second person and the first doctor in the U.S. to get inoculated. The three Manhattan campuses have now performed more than 77,000 vaccinations.
In addition to this recognition, Healthgrades recently named Lenox Hill one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals placing the medical institution in the top one percent of all hospitals in the country for its high quality of clinical care and positive patient outcomes for the most common conditions and procedures. It is the only hospital in New York City to receive this honor in 2022. Healthgrades also designated Lenox Hill as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for cardiac care, coronary intervention and prostate surgery.
