Saint Michael’s Medical Center was named to the 2022 Fortune/Merative 100 Top Hospitals list — the only hospital in New Jersey that earned this national honor, it was announced this week.
Merative, formerly IBM Watson Health, identifies the top hospitals from a rigorous evaluation of 2,650 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals in the U.S.
The hospitals on this year’s list represent those that held up best against the pandemic’s ongoing stress test, according to Forbes/Merative. They achieved better results than peer institutions on performance indicators intended to measure clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience and financial health.
Saint Michael’s CEO, Dr. Alan Sickles, said the hospital is thrilled to make the list for the first time — and proud that it is the only N.J. hospital that was ranked.
“We are extremely honored to be the only hospital in New Jersey to be included on the Top 100 Hospitals list,” he said. “Our entire team deserves credit for this recognition. They have worked diligently through the pandemic to provide the highest quality and safest care to our community.”
Recognition as one of the Fortune/Merative 100 Top Hospitals demonstrates Saint Michael’s ongoing commitment to prioritize patient-centered care.
According to Merative, when compared to similar hospitals, the hospitals included on the Fortune/Merative 100 Top Hospitals list had better results on key clinical and operational performance indicators, including survival rates, patient complications, health care-associated infections, 30-day mortality and 30-day hospitalwide readmission rates, length of stay, throughput in emergency departments, inpatient expenses, profitability and ratings from patients.
The Fortune/Merative 100 Top Hospitals lists also incorporates a community health measure into its ranking process.
For the community health measure, hospitals were surveyed across three components: assessing hospital contributions to community health as a provider of critical services for community health and preventive care; identifying ways that hospitals contribute to community health as a community partner teaming up with local organizations to implement critical programs; and focusing on ways that hospitals promote community health through their practices as anchor institutions supporting local economic and social progress.
The community health measure is weighted equally with other ranking measures.
In the last few months, Saint Michael’s has been recognized by several national organizations.
In May, Saint Michael’s was awarded an “A” from the Leapfrog Group in the Spring 2022 hospital safety ratings — the only hospital in Essex County to earn the top grade from the independent national watchdog organization.
In March, Saint Michael’s was recognized by Healthgrades as a 2022 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient, which places Saint Michael’s among the Top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals as evaluated by Healthgrades.
“We are proud of these accolades and will continue to work together to improve health care in Newark,” Sickles said.
