3 NJ Hospitals Get 'D' Grade For Patient Safety, Nonprofit Says

Earlier this week, we told you about New Jersey's safest hospitals. But what about the hospitals that received the lowest grade for patient safety?

Hospital safety grades are released by the nonprofit group Leapfrog twice a year. The group says the goal of the rankings is to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visit a certain hospital.

The most recent batch of grades was released on Tuesday.

When it comes the the lowest-ranked hospitals in New Jersey, three received a D grade. Twenty hospitals got a C. Luckily, there were no New Jersey hospitals that received an F. See the safest hospitals in the state here, according to Leapfrog.

Leapfrog says 27 evidence-based measures of patient safety are used to calculate the grades. Using that information, a numerical score is created and then converted into one of five letter grades.

The group uses performance measures from a variety of sources, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections are taken into account by Leapfrog when calculating the grades.

The nonprofit says its Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety. (You can read more about the letter grades here.)

About 32 percent of hospitals nationwide get an A grade. About 25 percent get a B, 37 percent get a C, and just 6 percent get a D. Less than one percent are graded an F.

"Errors and infections in hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America, and people deserve to know which of their hospitals are best at preventing them," Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, said in a press release.

Here are the New Jersey hospitals that received a D:

• Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, Secaucus
• Trinitas Regional Medical Center, Elizabeth
• University Hospital, Newark

Here are the New Jersey hospitals that received a C:

• Chilton Medical Center, Pompton Plains
• Cooper University Hospital, Camden
• HackensackUMC Mountainside, Montclair
• HackensackUMC Palisades, North Bergen
• Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, Hackettstown
• JFK Medical Center, Edison
• Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County, Willingboro
• Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, Lakewood
• Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark,
• Raritan Bay Medical Center of Perth Amboy, Perth Amboy
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway, Rahway
• Saint Clare's Hospital of Denville, Denville,
• Saint Clare's Hospital of Dover, Dover
• Saint Michael's Medical Center, Newark
• St. Francis Medical Center of Trenton, Trenton
• St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, Paterson
• St. Joseph's Wayne Hospital, Wayne
• St. Luke's Warren Campus, Phillipsburg
• St. Mary's General Hospital, Passaic

Click here to see the New Jersey hospitals that received the highest safety grades.

With reporting by Kara Seymour

Patch file photo