Ridgewood Hospital Receives 'A' Safety Grade

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — The Valley Hospital received an "A" grade for hospital safety, according to new Spring 2019 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group on Wednesday.

The nonprofit group found that of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded in the country, 32 percent earned an "A" grade, findings that were unchanged from the group’s last round of rankings released in Fall 2018.

The Leapfrog Group explains that its rating system is focused entirely on errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The hospital safety grades are released by the nonprofit group twice a year, in the spring and in the fall.

"We are proud to have once against received an "A" for patient safety," said Audrey Meyers, president and CEO of The Valley Hospital and Valley Health System.

Here are the grades for hospitals in Bergen County that were given by the Leapfrog Group:

• The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood: "A"
• Hackensack Meridian Health, Pascack Valley Medical Center, Westwood: "B"
• Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood: "B"
• Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck: "B"
• Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack: "B"

Oregon, Virginia, Maine, Massachusetts and Virginia had the highest percentage of hospitals that received an "A" grade. Four states — Wyoming, Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota — and the District of Columbia did not have a single hospital that received an "A" grade.

For this round of rankings, the Leapfrog Group’s research found that patients at hospitals that receive “D” or “F” grades face a 92 percent greater risk of avoidable death compared to “A” hospitals. At “C” and “B” hospitals, patients on average face an 88 percent and a 35 percent greater risk respectively.

The group estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at “A” hospitals, 50,000 lives would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com