In 2023, New York hospitals had 52 reported infection measures flagged significantly higher than the state average out of 1,487 comparable measures. Monroe County's share was 17.3 percent.
Hospital-acquired infections are infections patients develop while receiving care, including bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, surgical-site infections, Clostridioides difficile infections, often called C. diff, and other reported measures. The New York State Department of Health, the state agency that publishes hospital infection surveillance data, released a 2023 file with 2,588 hospital infection rows. Of the 1,487 rows with a significant comparison result, 52 were flagged as significantly higher than the New York State 2023 average.
Counties with more infection measures flagged higher
Share of comparable 2023 hospital infection measures flagged significantly higher than the New York State average. Hover or tap a county, and the full ranking is below.
Counties with fewer than ten comparable measures are marked as small samples. Counties without comparable measures are left unshaded.
| County | Compared measures | % flagged higher |
|---|---|---|
| Monroe | 52 | 17.3% |
| Allegany † | 6 | 16.7% |
| St. Lawrence † | 6 | 16.7% |
| Columbia † | 7 | 14.3% |
| Cattaraugus † | 7 | 14.3% |
| Wayne † | 8 | 12.5% |
| Erie | 73 | 8.2% |
| Niagara | 14 | 7.1% |
| Broome | 29 | 6.9% |
| Otsego | 17 | 5.9% |
| Richmond | 37 | 5.4% |
| New York (Manhattan) | 199 | 4.5% |
| Bronx | 92 | 4.3% |
| Oneida | 24 | 4.2% |
| Orange | 30 | 3.3% |
| Westchester | 97 | 3.1% |
| Kings | 150 | 2.7% |
| Onondaga | 47 | 2.1% |
| Queens | 84 | 1.2% |
| Nassau | 116 | 0.9% |
| Suffolk | 120 | 0.8% |
| Albany | 31 | 0.0% |
| Dutchess | 26 | 0.0% |
| Ontario | 20 | 0.0% |
| Rockland | 20 | 0.0% |
| Chautauqua | 13 | 0.0% |
| Schenectady | 12 | 0.0% |
| Warren | 10 | 0.0% |
| Chemung † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Clinton † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Cayuga † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Saratoga † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Rensselaer † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Jefferson † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Montgomery † | 8 | 0.0% |
| Chenango † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Steuben † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Cortland † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Tompkins † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Genesee † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Putnam † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Livingston † | 7 | 0.0% |
| Franklin † | 6 | 0.0% |
| Fulton † | 6 | 0.0% |
| Sullivan † | 6 | 0.0% |
| Madison † | 6 | 0.0% |
| Oswego † | 6 | 0.0% |
| Ulster † | 5 | 0.0% |
† Small sample, fewer than ten comparable infection measures in 2023. Rates for these counties should be read with caution.
What the standardized infection ratio means
Many hospital infection measures use a standardized infection ratio, or SIR, a risk-adjusted comparison of observed infections with the number predicted for similar patients and procedures. A value above one means more infections were observed than predicted, while a value below one means fewer were observed than predicted. The comparison flag in this New York State Department of Health dataset identifies whether a reported measure was significantly higher, lower, or not significantly different than the New York State 2023 average.
Hospitals with the most higher infection flags
Individual hospitals ranked by 2023 measures flagged significantly higher than the New York State average.
| Hospital | County | Measures higher | Compared measures | Share higher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong Memorial Hospital | Monroe | 5 | 16 | 31.2% |
| Highland Hospital | Monroe | 3 | 12 | 25.0% |
| Kaleida Health Buffalo General Hospital | Erie | 3 | 15 | 20.0% |
| Maimonides Medical Center | Kings | 3 | 17 | 17.6% |
| St. John's Riverside Hospital | Westchester | 2 | 9 | 22.2% |
| Newyork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center | New York | 2 | 15 | 13.3% |
| Montefiore Medical Center - Moses Campus | Bronx | 2 | 16 | 12.5% |
| Bellevue Hospital | New York | 2 | 18 | 11.1% |
| Newyork-Presbyterian Hospital/ Weill Cornell Medical Center | New York | 2 | 19 | 10.5% |
| Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Erie | 1 | 5 | 20.0% |
| Jones Memorial Hospital | Allegany | 1 | 6 | 16.7% |
| Canton-Potsdam Hospital | St. Lawrence | 1 | 6 | 16.7% |
What this can and cannot show
A higher infection flag is a warning signal in public health reporting, not proof that a hospital committed malpractice in any individual case. Hospitals differ in patient mix, services, and reporting volume, and many measures are not compared when denominators are too small. The cleanest reading is comparative and cautious. It identifies where reported infection measures were elevated, not why a specific patient was harmed.
If you or a family member may have been harmed by a doctor's error in New York, the team at Porter Law Group can review the medical records and your options at no cost.
Methodology
Figures come from the New York State Department of Health Hospital-Acquired Infections Beginning 2008 dataset for calendar year 2023, the most recent full year in the public file reviewed for this report on June 25, 2026. County is assigned from each hospital geocode using the plugin county GeoJSON map-boundary file. Rows are counted as comparable when the comparison result begins with significantly or not significantly. A worse measure is a row where the comparison result is Significantly higher than NYS 2023 average, which is the government label quoted from the source data, where NYS means New York State. County map values divide worse measures by comparable measures. Hospital table counts use the same rule at the facility level. Rows without usable geocodes are excluded from county and hospital rankings. This report uses aggregate public reporting and does not assess medical causation, standard of care, or any individual patient outcome.
