31 NJ Hospitals Get 'A' Rating On New Safety Grades: See Full List

NEW JERSEY — Thirty-one hospitals in New Jersey were given top marks in The Leapfrog Group’s fall 2024 hospital safety grades released Friday.

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health care watchdog group that grades hospitals twice a year, assigns letter grades ranging from “A” to “F,” for 3,000 general hospitals on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections.

Overall, hospitals have made great strides since the pandemic years, when the risk of contracting deadly infections was elevated nationwide, but more work needs to be done, the Leapfrog Group said in a news release.

New Jersey ranked fifth among states for the number of hospitals earning the top letter grade, and most of the medical centers on this list also got "A" grades in Leapfrog's spring safety ratings. The top-rated hospitals are:

Hackensack Meridian - Ocean University Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Saint Clare's Hospital of Dover

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Inspira Medical Center Elmer

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hunterdon Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hackensack Meridian - Hackensack University Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hackensack Meridian Bayshore Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Monmouth Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Virtua Marlton Hospital

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Morristown Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Saint Peter's University Hospital

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Saint Michael's Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

St. Mary's General Hospital

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

St. Luke's Warren Campus

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: B

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: B

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: B

Overlook Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Holy Name Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Community Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Jefferson Washington Township Hospital

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Inspira Medical Center Vineland

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Virtua Voorhees Hospital

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

St. Joseph's Wayne Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: A

Hackensack Meridian Pascack Valley Medical Center

• Fall 2024 rating: A
• Spring 2024 rating: B

Overall, New Jersey had:

• 23 hospitals that earned “B” grades;
• 13 hospitals that earned “C” grades;
• 0 hospitals that earned “D” grades; and
• 0 hospitals that earned “F” grades.

For the third grading cycle, Utah tops the list with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals, followed, respectively, by Virginia, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina. California ranked in the top 10 for the first time since the fall of 2014.

The fall 2024 ratings show improvement in patient safety across several performance measures, including notable improvements on health care-associated infections, hand hygiene and medication safety. Preventable deaths and harm in hospitals has long been a major policy focus for The Leapfrog Group.

While noting the gains hospitals have made in patient safety have saved “countless lives,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release that medical centers nationwide need to accelerate their progress “because no one should have to die from a preventable error in a hospital.”

Binder said significant variation in performance continues across U.S. hospitals. For example, four states — Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont — had no “A” hospitals.

“That’s why it’s so important for people to consult grades when making decisions about seeking care,” Binder said. “All hospitals are not the same.”

Nationally, health care-acquired infections reached their highest peak since 2016 in the fall 2022 safety grades, but they have since declined dramatically, according to the report.

Also, central line-associated bloodstream infections were down 38 percent, catheter-associated urinary tract infections were down 36 and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections decreased by 34 percent.

For more information on the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

Patch's national desk contributed to this report.