PRINCETON – November 16, 2022 – The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing hundreds of employers and purchasers of health care — and driven in New Jersey by the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute — today announced the Fall 2022 Hospital Safety Grades.

The independent grading system assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F,” grade to 3,000 general hospitals across the country based on over thirty national measures of preventable errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

Of the 70 New Jersey hospitals graded, 76 percent received an A or B grade, which is 9 percent higher than Spring 2022. Thirteen hospitals went up a grade; three hospitals went down a grade. New Jersey is the only state in the country with over 95 percent hospital participation (98.6 percent) in the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Survey as of October 31, 2022. One New Jersey hospital has not yet submitted a Survey but is expected to do so by the November 30th deadline.

New Jersey now ranks 6th for percentage of A hospitals as compared to 12th in Spring 2022.

“During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data showed a distressing nationwide decline in patient safety measures as staffing and other challenges stressed hospitals and health care systems, including hospitals in New Jersey,” said Adelisa Perez-Hudgins, MSN, RN, Director of Quality for the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. “In New Jersey, in this half of the year, we see improvements in the data. We are not back to pre-pandemic quality, but we are heading in the right direction.”

The grades of the 70 hospitals break down as follows:

• 33 A hospitals – 47 percent (3 more A’s than last round)
• 20 B hospitals – 29 percent (4 more B’s than last round)
• 14 C hospitals – 20 percent (5 less C’s than last round)
• 3 D hospital – 4 percent (1 less D than last round)
• 0 F hospital – 0 percent (same number of F’s as last round)

The D hospitals were CareWell Health Medical Center (formerly East Orange General Hospital), St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, and St. Joseph’s Wayne Medical Center

The Fall 2022 release of grades marks the 10th anniversary of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. An analysis by The Leapfrog Group of data across the Hospital Safety Grade’s history suggests improvement in patient safety over time.

Although measures used in the Hospital Safety Grade have changed in the past 10 years, many measures reliably show a consistent pattern of better performance. For five of the outcome measures, improvements in performance saved an estimated more than 16,000 lives over the 10- year period.

“Never in history have we seen across-the-board improvement in patient safety until this last decade, coinciding with the history of the Hospital Safety Grade,” said Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We salute hospitals for this milestone and encourage them to accelerate their hard work saving patient lives. For a long time, the health care community tried to improve safety, but progress stalled. 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.”

For more information about the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, as well as individual hospital grades and state rankings, please visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, as well as the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute

The New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute’s (Quality Institute) mission is to improve the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for everyone. Our membership comes from all stakeholders in health care. Together with our 100 plus members, we are working toward a world where all people receive safe, equitable, and affordable health care and live their healthiest lives.

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About The Leapfrog Group

 Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.