NJ Safest Hospitals: Latest Ratings Released For Fall

NEW JERSEY — Several New Jersey hospitals have made improvements in protecting patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections while others have fallen short, according to the Fall 2022 Hospital Safety Grades report released Wednesday.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit healthcare watchdog group, used 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.

In New Jersey, 33 hospitals received an A, 20 hospitals received a B, 14 hospitals received a C and 3 hospitals received a D grade. Zero hospitals received an F.

Here are the ratings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center
• Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center, North Bergen
• Hunterdon Medical Center, Flemington
• St. Mary's General Hospital, Passaic
• Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, Plainsboro
• The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood
• Morristown Medical Center, Morristown
• Chilton Medical Center, Pompton Lakes
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway, Rahway
• Inspira Medical Center Vineland, Vineland
• Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank
• Hackensack Meridian Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy
• Capital Health Medical Center - Hopewell, Pennington
• Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood
• Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, Cherry Hill
• Saint Clare's Hospital of Denville, Denville
• Overlook Medical Center, Summit
• Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, Paramus
• Jefferson Washington Township Hospital, Tunersville
• St. Luke's Warren Campus, Phillipsburg
• Inspira Medical Center Elmer, Elmer
• Hackensack Meridian Old Bridge Medical Center, Old Bridge
• Saint Peter's University Hospital, New Brunswick
• Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune
• Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch
• Jefferson Stratford Hospital, Stratford
• Saint Michael's Medical Center, Newark
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton, Hamilton
• Hackensack Meridian Bayshore Medical Center, Holmdel
• Virtua Marlton Hospital, Marlton
• Hudson Regional Hospital, Secaucus
• Hackensack Meridian Pascack Valley Medical Center, Westwood
• Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill, Mullica Hill

B

• Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark
• Clara Maass Medical Center, Bellville
• Cape Regional Medical Center, Cape May Court House
• Cooper University Hospital, Camden
• Newton Medical Center, Newton
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick
• Virtua Voorhees Hospital, Voorhees
• Community Medical Center, Toms River
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset, Somerville
• Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center, Brick
• Virtua Memorial Hospital dba Virtua Mt Holly Hospital, Mount Holly
• Atlanticare Regional Medical Center - City Campus, Atlantic City
• Jersey City Medical Center, Jersey City
• Atlanticare Regional Medical Center-Mainland Campus, Pomona
• Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, Lakewood
• Salem Medical Center, Salem
• Capital Health Regional Medical Center, Trenton
• Hackensack Meridian Health JFK University Medical Center, Edison
• Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, Hackettstown
• Virtua Willingboro Hospital, Willingboro

C

• Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck
• CarePoint Health-Christ Hospital, Jersey City
• St. Francis Medical Center of Trenton, Trenton
• CarePoint Health-Bayonne Medical Center, Bayonne
• Trinitas Regional Medical Center RWJBH, Elizabeth
• Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Camden
• Carepoint Health-Hoboken University Medical Center, Hoboken
• Shore Medical Center, Somers Point
• Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center, Montclair
• Saint Clare's Hospital of Dover, Dover
• Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston
• CentraState Medical Center, Freehold
• Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center, Manahawkin
• University Hospital, Newark

D

• St. Joseph's University Medical Center, Paterson
• EOH Acquisition, LLC dba EOGH, East Orange
• St. Joseph's Wayne Medical Center, Wayne

With the release of its fall report, The Leapfrog Group has analyzed hospital safety data for a decade. Most hospitals have improved over time under more public scrutiny, Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

“For a long time, the healthcare community tried to improve safety, but progress stalled,” Binder said. “The big difference over this decade is that for the first time, we publicly reported each hospital’s record on patient safety, and that galvanized the kind of change we all hoped for.

“It’s not enough change, but we are on the right track,” she said.

Notably, hospitals reduced what are called “never events” — accidents and errors that never should have happened, the release said. Incidents of falls and trauma and incidents in which objects were unintentionally left in a patient’s body during surgery were down 25 percent, the watchdog group said.

Also, according to the report, progress on the number of patients treated for healthcare-associated infections declined to pre-pandemic levels.

Nearly two dozen hospitals have received straight-A reports every year since the Leapfrog Group began its safety grades in 2012. They are:

• Arizona: Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix.
• California: French Hospital Medical Center, San Luis Obispo; Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center, Anaheim; Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, San Luis Obispo.
• Colorado: Rose Medical Center, Denver.
• Florida: AdventHealth Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach.
• Illinois: Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, Elmhurst; Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield; University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago.
• Massachusetts: Beverly Hospital, Beverly; Saint Anne's Hospital, Fall River.
• Michigan: University of Michigan Health, Ann Arbor.
• Mississippi: Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle, Columbus.
• North Carolina: Rex Hospital, Inc., Raleigh.
• Ohio: OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, Dublin;OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital, Delaware.
• Texas: St. David's Medical Center, Austin.
• Virginia: Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg; Sentara CarePlex Hospital, Hampton; Sentara Leigh Hospital, Norfolk, Virginia; Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, Williamsburg.
• Washington: Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle.

Search for your hospital’s fall 2022 safety grade and read more about the methodology.