Thirty-One New Jersey Hospitals Earn an “A” on the Fall 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade

New Jersey Ranks 5th Nationally for Percentage of A hospitals

Leapfrog Reports Nationally in Healthcare-Associated Infections, Hand Hygiene, and Medication Safety

TRENTON — November 15, 2024 – The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing hundreds of the nation’s most influential employers and purchasers of health care, today released the Fall 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. New Jersey ranks fifth in the percentage of A hospitals in the Safety Grades, which provide a critical measure of patient safety for hospitals nationwide.

New Jersey has the highest rate of Leapfrog Hospital Survey participation in the country at 100%.

“New Jersey continues to stand out for the high rate of participation in the voluntary Leapfrog Hospital Safety Survey,” said Adelisa Perez Hudgins, Director of Quality at the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. “We applaud the commitment of our hospitals in New Jersey even as we recognize that preventable medical errors still happen far too often, including in our own communities.”

The Quality Institute is the regional leader for Leapfrog in New Jersey and New York.

Here is a breakdown of the safety grades in New Jersey:

• 31 A hospitals – 46% (1 more A than last round)
• 23 B hospitals – 34% (1 less B than last round)
• 13 C hospitals – 19% (1 more C than last round)
• 0 D hospitals – 0% (1 less D than last round)
• 0 F hospitals – 0% (same as last round)

Eighty-one percent of New Jersey hospitals (or 54 of 67) graded received an A or B grade, the same as last Fall. Seven hospitals went up a grade; five went down a grade. Overall, New Jersey ranked 5th in the country for percentage of A hospitals, compared to 3rd in the last round of Fall 2023. However, it is worth noting New Jersey’s percentage of A hospitals slightly increased (from 44.8% to 46.3%).

Leapfrog graded 67 acute care hospitals in the state. The non-profit patient safety organization reported that there was not enough data available to award a grade to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. Inspira Medical Center Mannington, meanwhile, did not receive a Fall Safety Grade because the facility was issued a new CMS Certification Number after acquiring Salem Medical Center and is therefore treated as a new facility, and subsequently is not eligible to receive a safety grade this year, according to Leapfrog policies.

Nationwide, Leapfrog data show improvements in some important areas, including hand hygiene and medication safety. Also significant is that 92% of hospitals have improved performance on at least one of three dangerous preventable infections. Nationally, average Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) scores have declined dramatically:

• Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) decreased by 34%
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) decreased by 30%
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decreased by 30%

“While today’s results are promising, patient safety remains a crisis-level hazard in health care. Some hospitals are much better than others at protecting patients from harm, and that’s why we make the Hospital Safety Grade available to the public and why we encourage all hospitals to focus more attention on safety,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. According to a summary of peer-reviewed research published in BMJ, an estimated 250,000 people a year die of preventable errors and infections in hospitals, which makes patient safety problems the third leading cause of death in the United States.

The Leapfrog Group has a more than 10-year history of assigning letter grades to general hospitals throughout the U.S., based on a hospital’s ability to prevent medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Hospital Safety Grade results are based on more than 30 national performance measures and are updated each fall and spring.

Detailed hospital performance information, including patient experience and safety measures, as well as grades for individual hospitals searchable by states and localities is available at HospitalSafetyGrade.org.