What are New Jersey’s safest hospitals? Here’s how they all fared in new national survey.
Nearly half of New Jersey’s hospitals earned an “A” in the latest national safety report measuring how effective nurses, doctors and other medical staff are in preventing infections, falls and mistakes than often make patients sicker than they arrived.
New Jersey ranks 11th best in the nation — up from 15th best in April — because 30 of the 68 hospitals that participated in they survey received the top grade, according to the Leapfrog Group’s report on Tuesday. In the spring, 27 hospitals earned A’s.
The Leapfrog Group, founded by a group of corporate employers, commissioned a panel of public health experts to develop the safety report card in the wake of a landmark 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine that revealed hospital errors kill about 98,000 patients a year.
Leapfrog’s report card has become a go-to reference for educating the public, prodding poor-perfoming hospitals to improve and rewarding high-achievers.
“We encourage people to check the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades and other information on Leapfrog’s website when choosing a hospital,” said Linda Schwimmer, President and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, a consumer advocacy and research nonprofit.
Here’s what you need to know about the latest report on New Jersey hospitals:
Of New Jersey’s 30 top achieving hospitals, only 3 have earned straight A’s since Leapfrog launched the project focusing on patient safety five years ago.
They are Englewood Hospital, Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and Jersey City Medical Center.
Family room at the Cooperman Family Pavilion, a new 241,000 square foot building with a 35,000 square foot Neonatal intensive care unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center on Thursday in Livingston, NJ. 8/31/17 (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Two of the hospitals — Jersey City Medical Center and St. Barnabas Medical Center — are owned by the nonprofit RWJBarnabas system, the largest hospital chain the state, said John Bonamo, executive vice president and chief medical and quality officer.
With six of RWJBarnabas’ 11 hospitals earning an A in this report, Bonamo credits Leapfrog’s focus on safety with the system’s success.
“By creating this transparency and report card, it made people realize they need to operate on a different level,” Bonamo said. “The whole effort of putting it out there – has done a great job in pushing us to do more.”
Safety “is not one person’s job, it’s everybody’s job. That level of reliability happens when ever knows its important wash hands, gloving and gowning,” Bonamo said.
Other strategies include spending more time with patients and their families explaining they medical condition and listening to their concerns, he said. “If you spend more time with patient, they will tell you things that will raise the antenna. You have to anticipate and prevent the accidents, the infection from happening.”
Safety strategies at Englewood Hospital include creating more single-occupancy private rooms, which prevent the spread of infection, said Kathleen Kaminsky, the hospital’s chief population health officer.
Recruiting top talent to work at the hospital is also key, she said. So is “having a culture that encourages staff to speak freely, to speak up and raise issues in real time…We are constantly measuring how our staff feel.”
The A Team
These hospitals received the top grade in the Fall 2017 survey
* Bayshore Medical Center, Holmdel;
* Capital Health Regional Medical Center, Trenton;
* Carepoint-Christ Hospital, Jersey City;
* Carepoint-Bayonne Medical Center;
* Carepoint Hoboken Medical Center;
* Clara Maass Medical Center, Belleville;
* Englewood Hospital and Medical Center;
* Hackensack University Medical Center;
* Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck;
* Inspira Medical Center, Elmer;
* Inspira Medical Center in Vineland;
* Inspira Medical Center in Woodbury;
* Jersey City Medical Center;
* Kennedy University Hospital – Cherry Hill;
* Kennedy University Hospital – Stratford;
* Kennedy University Hospital – Washington Township;
* Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch;
* Morristown Medical Center;
* Newton Medical Center;
* Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank;
* RWJBarnabas Hospital – Hamilton;
* RWJBarnabas Hospital – Somerset
* RWJ Barnabas, Livingston;
* St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick;
* Shore Medical Center, Somers Point;
* Southern Ocean Medical Center, Manahawkin;
* Valley Hospital, Ridgewood;
* Virtua Hospital, Marlton;
* Virtua Memorial Hospital, Mount Holly;
* Virtua Hospital, Voorhees.
There are 15 hospitals that scored a B:
* Atlantic Regional Medical Center, Atlantic City;
* Atlantic Regional Medical Center, Pomona;
* Cape Regional Medical Center, Cape May Courthouse;
* Capital Health Medical Center, Hopewell;
* CentraState, Freehold;
* Community Medical Center, Toms River;
* Hackensack University Medical Center at Pascack Valley, Westwood;
* Hunterdon Medical Center, Flemington;
* Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune;
* Memorial Hospital of Salem County, Salem;
* Ocean Medical Center, Brick;
* Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden;
* Overlook Medical Center, Summit;
* Raritan Bay Medical Center, Old Bridge;
* University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro.
There are 20 hospitals that earned a C:
* Chilton Medical Center, Pompton Plains;
* Cooper University Hospital, Camden;
* Hackensack University Medical Center-Mountainside;
* Hackensack University Medical Centers-Palisades, North Bergen;
* Hackettstown Regional Medical Center;
* JFK Medical Center, Edison;
* Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County, Willingboro;
* Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus, Lakewood;
* Newark Beth Israel Medical Center;
* Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy;
* Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center, New Brunswick;
* Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center, Rahway;
* St. Clare’s Hospital, Danville;
* St. Clare’s Hospital, Dover;
* St. Francis Medical Center, Trenton;
* St. Michael’s Medical Center, Newark;
* St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson;
* St. Joseph’s Wayne Hospital;
* St. Luke’s Warren Campus, Phillipsburg;
* St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic.
No New Jersey hospital failed Leapfrog’s safety test.
These three earned a D:
* Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, Secaucus;
* Trinitas Regional Medical Center, Elizabeth;
* University Hospital, Newark.
Only 15 hospitals in the nation scored an F, according to the report.
Leapfrog graded 2,632 hospitals for this report.
Just 59 have earned straight-A’s since 2012, with three located in the Garden State.
Rhode Island, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho and Virginia ranked in the top five, while North Dakota, Washington D.C., Delaware, with no institutions earning an A, were tied for last.
“Errors and infections in hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America, and people deserve to know which of their hospitals are best at preventing them,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog.
Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.