Thirty-one hospitals in New Jersey received an “A” grade in the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade report, which was released Thursday morning.
Fifty-five of the 69 New Jersey hospitals reviewed received either an “A” or “B” grade. And, while that number is three fewer than in the spring, the state’s overall grade average improved to sixth among all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
(For the complete list of New Jersey hospitals, scroll down to the bottom.)
New Jersey had the highest rate of Leapfrog Hospital Survey participation for regions with over 50 acute care hospitals, at 100% participation.
The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit representing the nation’s largest and most influential employers and purchasers of health care. The independent grading system assigns “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” and “F” letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the U.S., based on their ability to protect patients from avoidable errors, injuries, accidents and infections.
Here is the breakdown of safety grades for the New Jersey hospitals:
- 31 “A” hospitals: 45% (same number of A’s as last round);
- 24 “B” hospitals: 35% (three less B’s than last round);
- 12 “C” hospitals: 17% (five more C’s than last round);
- 2 “D” hospitals: 3% (one less D than last round);
- 0 “F” hospitals: 0% (last F was in Fall 2018).
Nine hospitals went up in their grade, 12 hospitals went down a grade.
Linda Schwimmer, CEO and president of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, the regional leader for Leapfrog, said the survey is telling.
“Once again, we’re pleased that every acute care hospital in our state has participated in the survey,” he said. “That shows an exceptional commitment to safety and transparency.
“Yet, the latest survey also shows that concerns remain about some poorly rated hospitals — and we hope the low safety scores will galvanize their hospital leaders to commit to the difficult work needed to improve and sustain quality and safety.”
Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign the grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
For more information about the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, as well as individual grades and state rankings, please visit hospitalsafetygrade.org.
