Who Gives a Shit: What do you think of Methodist Hospital?

Photo via /www.acuherbnewyork.com

I’ve -- thankfully -- never needed to go to Methodist, but I do live near it, and it’s certainly a dominating presence in the community – both in physical size and its employment and economic impact.

Founded in 1887, it is now one of the largest medical facilities in greater NY with 651 beds, over 38,000 admissions and 300,000 outpatient visits a year. Its most famous patient is likely Stephen Baltz (age 11), the lone survivor of the famous New York Air Disaster of 1960, in which two planes collided, one of which fell onto Sterling Place and 7th Avenue. Stephen lived for one day before succumbing to pneumonia. 

What I have noticed about Methodist Hospital are the very strong opinions. It’s not like a restaurant where people say, “yeah, it’s pretty decent.”  Rather, people in casual conversation either love the place or hate it (kinda' like the Black Eyed Peas).  So I thought I’d dig a bit deeper and see if this casual observation had merit.

Methodist Hospital has 41 reviews on Yelp, with an overall average of 3 stars. However if you look at the rating breakout, 17 people give it 4 or 5 stars while 15 give it one.  Definitely a strong split of love and hate.

For a more scholarly viewpoint, U.S. News, which compiles a very comprehensive national ranking system, rates Methodist as the 38^th best hospital in greater NY City, with high marks in two specialties. Patients, meanwhile give it a 52% approval rating. According to the New York Patient Satisfaction Survey on myHealthFinder.com, Methodist scores a pretty average 51% approval rating. Similarly, The U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services has a list of patient survey results in which Methodists ranks below New York and National Averages in 9 of 10 categories:

Interestingly, not a single hospital in the state make the Top 100 Hospitals list from Thomson Reuters, whereas New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell ranks 5th nationally, according to US News. 

So based on all of this info, Methodist seems to be a C-average student.  Would you concur?