New Hospital Safety Ratings: Community Medical Center

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Community Medical Center received high marks for safety in The Leapfrog Group's annual fall safety grades.

The nonprofit health care watchdog group grades hospitals twice a year, assigning letter grades from "A" to "F" based on each hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

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Community Medical Center in Toms River, part of the RWJ Barnabas network, received a B for the fall. The hospital had received an A in the spring, Bs in 2020, and As in 2019.

It was rated above average in many categories, including preventing MRSA infections and its handling of medications. It received below-average scores five out of seven categories of problems after surgery, including death from treatable serious complications after surgery, where it received a score of 168.51, meaning 168.51 patients out of every 1,000 died of serious treatable complications. The average hospital's score was 159.67 patients out of every 1,000. The score on sepsis infections was 6.68 people per thousand, higher than the average of 4.69 recorded in hospitals across the country.

Among nearby hospitals, Ocean University Medical Center, Jersey Shore University Medical in Neptune and Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch received A grades. Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus also received a B grade, and CentraState Medical Center in Freehold received a C.

The fall 2021 Hospital Safety Grade graded 2,901 facilities across the country, the most the group has graded. In New Jersey, 30 hospitals received an "A" grade, 16 hospitals received a "B" grade, 22 hospitals received a "C" grade and two hospitals received a "D" grade. No New Jersey hospitals received an "F" grade. Read more: New NJ Hospital Safety Ratings: 30 Get 'A' Grade, 2 Get 'D'

The Safety Grades reflect performance on more than 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety, including for the first time, post-operative sepsis, blood leakage, and kidney injury.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is advised by an expert panel of leading patient safety authorities from across the country and receives guidance from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Grades are updated biannually in the fall and in the spring.

For more information about the Hospital Safety Grade, including details on individual hospital grades and state rankings, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

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