3 NJ Hospitals Earn Prestigious 'Top Hospital' Designation
NEW JERSEY — Three New Jersey hospitals have been recognized with a prestigious award from the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that publishes data on hospital safety and quality nationwide. The awards come as hospitals around the state and country see their capacities pushed to the brink by the coronavirus.
The three New Jersey hospitals were awarded with the "Top Hospital" designation, in two different categories.
"This is an extraordinary year for all of us, but for hospitals, history broke down doors and barged right in," Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release.
To qualify for consideration of the award, hospitals must receive an "A" grade in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey.
Among teaching hospitals, two New Jersey institutions were recognized: Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, and St. Luke's Warren Campus in Phillipsburg.
In the general hospital category, Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel received recognition.
The report comes as hospitals have been dealing with an increasing influx of cases amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Phil Murphy said more than 3,200 are currently hospitalized in New Jersey, well short of the 8,200 who were hospitalized when the coronavirus pandemic first hit the Garden State in the spring.
Murphy presented several predictive models this past week, however, that showed hospitalizations could swell to 8,000 or more by January if New Jersey doesn't do enough to protect itself in the coming weeks. Read more: Gov. Murphy Now Says NJ Daily COVID Cases Could Double To 12K
Standards considered in the Leapfrog report include various aspects of patient safety, success of procedures and surgeries, lack of errors in medication, infection rates, and more. You can view the full methodology online here.
"In the pandemic, we needed our hospitals to save lives, comfort families, and support communities, schools, and the economy. American hospitals were there for us," Binder said. "It is why Leapfrog holds hospitals to high standards; they are so critical to the future of our country in every way imaginable."
Only a very small number of hospitals nationally received the award: 105 total. Leapfrog's four categories honored nine children's hospitals, 29 general hospitals, 19 rural hospitals, and 48 teaching hospitals.
This article originally appeared on the Brick Patch
