Worst rated hospitals in NJ: How they compare with new safety scores

How safe is your local hospital?

An updated study that assigns letter grades to every hospital in the Garden State finds Jersey hospitals have the 6th highest number of A rated hospitals of any state in the nation, but Katie Stewart, the director of Health Care Ratings for the Leapfrog Group said close to 25% of Garden State hospitals get a letter grade of C or D.

She said while 33 Jersey hospitals received a grade of A and 20 got a B, 14 Jersey hospitals got a grade of C and 3 got a D based on “up to 30 measures that are focused specifically on safety, so the prevention of accidents, errors, injuries and harm.”

No hospitals in Jersey got an F. Scroll down to see the C and D hospitals.

Factors in grading

She said part of the grade is based on “staffing your ICU with physicians that are critically trained in critical care medicine, or patient experience metrics that are directly related and correspond with improved patient safety.”

Stewart noted half of the safety grades are determined based on patient safety, such as preventing medication errors and patient outcomes that include cases of trauma and infection.

New Jersey hospitals that got a grade of C in the fall, 2022 update include:

Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck

Care Point Health-Christ Hospital, Jersey City

St. Francis Medical Center of Trenton, Trenton

Care Point Health-Bayonne Medical Center, Bayonne

Trinitas Regional Medical Center RWJBH, Elizabeth

Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Camden

Carepoint Health- Hoboken University Medical Center, Hoboken

Shore Medical Center, Somers Point

Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center, Brick

St. Clare’s Hospital of Dover, Dover

Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston

CentraState Medical Center, Freehold

Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center, Manahawkin

University Hospital, Newark

New Jersey hospitals that got a grade of D in the fall, 2022 update include:

St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson

CareWell Health Medical Center, formally East Orange General Hospital, East Orange

St. Joseph’s Wayne Medical Center, Wayne

Pandemic's impact on ratings

Stewart pointed out the ratings are based in part on “really comparing performance for each hospital based on how they compare to other hospitals nationally that got a grade that round.”

She said because of the pandemic, Leapfrog is seeing “a worse performance on some metrics, specifically the infections, as well as things like patient experience.”

How should the information be used?

Stewart said the hope is New Jerseyans will “take a look at the various metrics and see how if you’re going for a specific procedure, how is that hospital doing on surgery for example.”

“We want this information to be available to patients, to consumers or families, to purchasers who are buying healthcare for their employees or directing care for their employees.”

When asked for comment about the report, CentraState President and CEO Tom Scott said “as a High Reliability Organization with Magnet status for nursing excellence. CentraState performs continuous, rigorous reviews of quality and safety measures to ensure that physicians, nurses and staff deliver outstanding care to all patients.”

“Current Leapfrog grades reflect data from 2018 and 2019, where the most weighted section of the survey included pressure injuries. Since then, we have employed several clinical protocols regarding that measure that have shown great improvement, that we anticipate will be reflected in future grades once the older data cycles off.”

A statement from Hackensack Meridian Health said their “top priority is the health and safety of our patients. As with any hospital ranking, many factors are taken into consideration. Unfortunately, the data in this report relies on old data and is not reflective of current outcomes or patient experience at Southern Ocean Medical Center.”

A statement from Mountainside Medical Center said the facility “is committed to providing safe, high-quality care to our community. We fully support transparency around hospital quality data and our team remains focused on continuously improving the quality and safety of care delivered to patients.”

A statement from Trinitas Regional Medical Center said that “as a newly integrated hospital of RWJBarnabas Health, we have already begun a High Reliability Organization journey that will assist us to further improve our quality and safety. We are confident that we are moving in the right direction.”

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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