St. Peter's Among Nation's Top 50 Hospitals For Premature Babies

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick was recently ranked in U.S. News & World Report as being among the top 50 hospitals in the nation in neonatology.

U.S. News & World Report released their new 2020-21 Best Children's Hospitals rankings, published online this week. Saint Peter's is ranked 46th and is the only New Jersey-based hospital to be recognized among the top 50 in this category for the second year in a row.

"We are honored to be among the best healthcare facilities for neonatology," said Bipin Patel, MD, FAAP, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief at Saint Peter's Children's Hospital. "Having a child in the neonatal intensive care unit is a stressful time for parents, but confidence in the destination you've chosen and the quality of physicians and affiliated healthcare staff can make all the difference, not only for outcomes, but for parent's peace of mind."

U.S. News introduced the Best Children's Hospitals rankings in 2007 to help families of children with rare or life-threatening illnesses find the best medical care available. The rankings are the most comprehensive source of quality-related information on U.S. pediatric hospitals. The U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals rankings rely on clinical data and on an annual survey of pediatric specialists. The rankings methodology factors in patient outcomes, such as mortality and infection rates, as well as available clinical resources and compliance with best practices.

Also, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recently conferred a gold-level Beacon Award for Excellence on Saint Peter's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This was the third consecutive Beacon Award for the unit.

The Beacon Award for Excellence — a significant milestone on the path to exceptional patient care and healthy work environments — recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN's six Healthy Work Environment Standards.

Units that achieve this three-year, three-level award with gold, silver or bronze designations meet national criteria consistent with Magnet(r) Recognition, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the National Quality Healthcare Award.

Saint Peter's received its first silver-level Beacon Award in 2014, becoming the only NICU in New Jersey to receive the award. In 2017, Saint Peter's NICU received its second sliver-level Beacon Award before receiving its recent gold-level award.

In addition to the U.S. News and World Report ranking and the Beacon Award for Excellence, Saint Peter's earned The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval(r) for Perinatal Care by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards in maternal-fetal medicine.

"Our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit continues to attract those with an extraordinary level of expertise, training and commitment which is so deserving of this award. When you add these qualities to the true compassion and care that I see in our NICU nurses, I'm confident that these nurses are right where they want to be," said Dolly Allen, MSN, RN-CCRN, manager of the NICU at The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's.