How Safe Are Hospitals In Atlantic, Cape May Counties?

A nationwide hospital safety analysis has released its list of safest and worst hospitals when it comes to preventing medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections, which collectively are the third leading cause of death in America.

The Leapfrog Group released it's bi-yearly hospital safety grades on Tuesday, finding that hospitals overall have improved in reducing the number of avoidable deaths. The group assessed roughly 2,500 hospitals. Of those, 30 percent earned an "A," 28 percent earned a "B," 35 percent a "C," 6 percent a "D" and 1 percent an "F."

“This is the only national rating of how well hospitals protect patients from preventable harm and death, such as medical errors, infections, and injuries,” Leapfrog President and Chief Executive Officer Leah Binder said. “Receiving an ‘A’ Safety Grade means a hospital is among the best in the country for preventing these terrible problems and putting their patients first, 24 hours a day.”

The assessment system assigns school-style letter grades to general acute-care hospitals. The hope is to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visit a certain hospital. Below is how hospitals in Atlantic and Cape May counties fared:

A:

• Shore Medical Center, Somers Point

B:

• Atlanticare Regional Medical Center - City Campus, Atlantic City
• Atlanticare Regional Medical Center-Mainland Campus, Pomona
• Cape Regional Medical Center, Cape May Court House

C: None

“We are extremely proud that Shore Medical Center is the only hospital in Atlantic and Cape May counties to receive an ‘A’ safety grade for the Spring 2018 rating period,” Shore Medical Center President and Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson said. “This latest ‘A’ rating reflects years of ongoing commitment and hard work of our Board and Leadership team as well as our physicians, clinical and support staff. With Spring 2018 being our eighth consecutive ‘A’ rating period, our patients can be assured that our commitment to quality and safety is second to none.”

University Hospital in Newark got an "F." The hospital was reported to have a variety of problems related to infections, surgery and doctors, nurses and hospital staff, according to Leapfrog. See the full list of how New Jersey hospitals ranked here.

Among the findings nationally, five hospitals that received an "A" grade for the first time this year previously received an "F" grade, the group said, and 46 hospitals earned an "A" for the first time since the grading system began six years ago.

Leapfrog said its analysis showed 89 hospitals that had previously received "D" or "F" ratings had improved to an "A" this year.

Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Idaho all previously ranked near the bottom of the state rankings with low percentages of "A" hospitals, but now all rank in the top 10.

Here are some of the other findings:

• The five states with the highest percentage of "A" hospitals this spring are Hawaii, Idaho, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia
• Ten states have hospitals with "F" grades are California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York

Leapfrog says you shouldn't refuse emergency care because of a bad safety grade. They're meant to be used as a guide for planned events and a research tool for potential emergencies.

Patch reporters Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

Image via Shutterstock