New NJ Hospital Safety Ratings Released: See Best, Worst

NEW JERSEY — More than half of New Jersey hospitals received top grades in protecting patient safety, even as the average risk of contracting deadly infections remained elevated nationwide after spiking to a five-year high during the pandemic, according to the spring 2023 hospital safety grades released Wednesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog.

Patient experience measures — like communication from doctors — also declined, according to the report. Leapfrog said the findings should be a wake-up call to hospitals nationwide.

The Leapfrog Group uses an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on more than 30 measures of patient safety. Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors.

New Jersey led the country in the number of hospitals receiving an “A” grade, compared to the fall when the state had the sixth-most.

In New Jersey, 31 hospitals received an A, 17 hospitals received a B, 11 hospitals received a C and zero hospitals received a D grade. No hospitals received an F.

Here are the ratings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center
• The Valley Hospital
• Hunterdon Medical Center
• Cooper University Hospital
• Morristown Medical Center
• St. Mary's General Hospital
• Chilton Medical Center
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway
• Newton Medical Center
• Inspira Medical Center Vineland
• Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Raritan Bay Medical Center
• Virtua Voorhees Hospital
• Community Medical Center
• Capital Health Medical Center - Hopewell
• Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
• Overlook Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center
• Jefferson Washington Township Hospital
• St. Luke's Warren Campus
• Atlanticare Regional Medical Center - City Campus
• Inspira Medical Center Elmer
• Hackensack Meridian Old Bridge Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center
• Monmouth Medical Center
• Atlanticare Regional Medical Center-Mainland Campus
• Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus
• Jefferson Stratford Hospital
• Saint Michael's Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Bayshore Medical Center
• Virtua Marlton Hospital
• Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill
• Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center

B

• Clara Maass Medical Center
• Cape Regional Medical Center
• CarePoint Health-Christ Hospital
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset
• Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital
• Saint Clare's Hospital of Denville
• Virtua Memorial Hospital dba Virtua Mt Holly Hospital
• Saint Clare's Hospital of Dover
• Saint Peter's University Hospital
• Jersey City Medical Center
• Capital Health Regional Medical Center
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton
• Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center
• Hackettstown Regional Medical Center
• Virtua Willingboro Hospital
• Hackensack Meridian Pascack Valley Medical Center

C

• Holy Name Medical Center
• St. Joseph's University Medical Center Paterson
• St. Francis Medical Center of Trenton
• CarePoint Health-Bayonne Medical Center
• Trinitas Regional Medical Center RWJBH
• Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital
• Carepoint Health-Hoboken University Medical Center
• Shore Medical Center
• Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center
• CareWell Health Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Health JFK University Medical Center
• CentraState Medical Center
• St. Joseph's Wayne Medical Center
• Hudson Regional Hospital
• University Hospital

D

• None

F

• None

Not rated

• Bergen New Bridge Medical Center
• Salem Medical Center

High rates of three health care-associated infections, or HAIs, “should stop hospitals in their tracks,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release, noting that “infections like these can be life for death for some patients.”

“We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience,” Binder said.

The problematic infections are Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA; central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSI; and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or CAUTI. When compared to rankings that covered the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak, the analysis found an increased infection ratio for all three infections. The spring 2023 rankings cover late 2021 and 2022.

However, another such infection, Clostridioides difficile, or C.Diff, improved and there was no significant change for surgical site infections post surgery, the report said. The standardized infection ratio used to measure changes in the rates of infections compares the actual number of reported infections to the predicted number at each hospital.

“Not only are HAIs among the leading causes of death in the U.S., they also increase length of hospitalization stays and add to costs,” Binder said. “Our pre-pandemic data showed improved HAI measures, but the spring 2023 Safety Grade data spotlights how hospital responses to the pandemic led to a decline in patient safety and HAI management.”

Patient experience measures included communication with nurses and doctors, staff responsiveness, and communication about medicine and discharge information. Nationally, the average of all five measures declined when compared to pre-pandemic measures, according to the report.

Patch's national desk contributed to this report.