Southern Ocean Medical Center Gets 'C' Grade On Hospital Safety Report

How safe is your hospital? It’s a question most people ask any time they have to go to a hospital for any kind of medical care.

In New Jersey, the answer for most of them is fairly safe.

A report released this week by The Leapfrog Group looks in depth at safety practices of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals, assigning them grades based not only on following best practices but on occurrences of problems.

The Hospital Safety Score assigns A, B, C, D and F grades based on the ability to prevent errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

“At a time when more than 1,000 people die every day from preventable accidents in hospitals, Leapfrog believes that patient safety should be Job No. 1 in every hospital, 24-7. To reinforce that goal of consistent vigilance, we’ve made it easier for patients and others to evaluate a hospital’s previous safety record on the Hospital Safety Score website,” said Leah Binder, Leapfrog president and CEO. “While patients should always reference a hospital’s current grade as the most important indicator of hospital safety, patients may also want to consider the hospital’s past record, to assess whether their hospital is making constant improvements or if the hospital has demonstrated consistent excellence.”S

Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin received a ”C” grade. It was one of 9 out of 66 New Jersey hospitals that received a ”C.” Of the 66, 29 received an ”A.”

By contrast, Community Medical Center in Toms River received an ”A.” Ocean Medical Center in Brick received a ”B.”

“We carefully analyze the findings from such reports and continue to use the information to improve our processes,” said Marty Scott, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of Meridian Health, which owns Southern Ocean Medical Center. ”Quality improvement is a constant, ongoing commitment – an ingrained part of our work in caring for patients. Leap Frog is a good way to measure ourselves and these scores will continue to be a primary focus for continued performance improvement efforts as we continue on this journey.”

The report allows readers to look at how each hospital scored on each of the factors considered, as well as how it scored in previous years.

Southern Ocean scored low on having enough specially-trained physician for the intensive care unit. But the ICU staff worked well to prevent errors, according to the report.

To read all of Southern Ocean’s ratings, click here :

http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/h/southern-ocean-county-hospital?findBy=state&state_prov=NJ&agree=agree&rPos=1774&rSort=distance

New Jersey’s hospitals fared well as a whole, with just a few receiving less than a B grade. And the state had the fifth-highest percentage of A-graded hospitals in the country. Maine had the highest percentage, with 11 of its 18 hospitals receiving As.

Massachusetts was second, with 32 As among 62 hospitals, with Virginia third with 30 of 62 receiving As. Florida, in fourth place, had 77 A-graded hospitals out of 165.

The three states at the bottom of the rankings had no A-graded hospitals out of the handful in each state: Alaska (5 hospitals total), North Dakota (6) and the District of Columbia (6).