This week, Peconic Landing joined an elite tier of skilled-nursing providers nationwide for two of its signature programs.
U.S. News & World Report named both The Bluffs, its short-term rehabilitation center, and The Shores, its skilled-nursing community, among the nation’s “Best Nursing Homes” for 2026. Each earned the publication’s highest rating of “High Performing,” a distinction awarded to only a small fraction of the more than 15,000 facilities evaluated this year.
For Peconic Landing, a life-plan community that has long positioned itself as one of the East End’s most comprehensive senior-care providers, the double honor underscores what Robert J. Syron, Peconic Landing’s president and CEO, described in a statement as “the remarkable dedication of our team members, who show unwavering commitment to compassionate, person-centered care. Their professionalism and heart continue to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the individuals and families we serve.”
U.S. News’ annual ratings, closely watched by families seeking reliable, independent assessments of elder-care facilities, use federal data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This year’s methodology incorporated expanded measures meant to spotlight consistency, safety and patient outcomes. Among the new additions are weekend staffing metrics and infection-related hospitalization rates, data points long cited by advocates as essential to understanding how a facility performs when leadership is not physically present and when clinical stressors arise.
Against those measures, Peconic Landing stood out.
Compared with both state and national averages, the Greenport facility demonstrated stronger staffing across the board — including higher total nurse staffing, more direct patient-care hours and substantially greater registered nurse coverage.
Quality-of-care indicators also proved positive. For short-term rehabilitation patients, the facility recorded fewer major falls and lower infection-related hospitalizations than comparable institutions. A higher percentage of those patients returned home after rehab, a key marker of successful short-term care. For long-term residents, hospitalization rates were lower than state and national norms.
“Choosing the right nursing home based on care needs and comfort is a critical decision for prospective residents and their families,” said Zach Adams, a health data engineer at U.S. News, according to a press release. “The Best Nursing Homes ratings highlight nursing homes that excel in short-term rehabilitation and long-term care needs.”
Inside Peconic Landing, leaders credited the recognition to the day-to-day rhythm of a workforce that has managed, even in an era of heightened staffing shortages across the industry, to maintain stability and clinical depth.
Gregory Garrett, the community’s chief operating officer and administrator of health services, hailed the teams working in The Bluffs and The Shores.
“Their expertise and compassion are the foundation of these achievements,” he said. “To earn High Performing ratings in both categories is a testament to their exemplary work and to Peconic Landing’s mission of providing exceptional care across the continuum.”
Peconic Landing, founded in 2002, is a not-for-profit life-plan community located on a 144-acre campus overlooking Long Island Sound in Greenport. It is New York State’s first and only equity-based cooperative retirement community, offering members the ability to purchase shares rather than rent, with the potential to build equity over time. Designed for adults 62 and older, the community provides independent living options along with on-campus access to assisted living, skilled nursing and short-term rehabilitation.
The organization is regulated under New York State’s Continuing Care Retirement Community framework, with its cooperative structure overseen by the state attorney general. Peconic Landing has become one of Southold Town’s major employers and taxpayers and markets itself around wellness, arts and culture and what it calls “successful living.”
All of this year’s rankings can be reviewed online on the U.S. News & World Report website.