Three Monmouth County hospitals saw their safety grades dip; 11-year perfect streak ends
Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, which has set the standard for hospital safety in Monmouth and Ocean for a decade, was downgraded from an A to a B in the most recent grades from a watchdog group that were released on Monday.
The Leapfrog Group said two hospitals owned by Hackensack Meridian Health — Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel and Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank — also fell from an A to a B in the first safety study it has done with data collected since the pandemic.
The grades are published twice a year in a bid to prevent avoidable errors, save lives and keep costs under control. They are taken from 23 categories, including physician staffing levels in the ICU, the clarity of directions from doctors and nurses, and infection rates.
The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of big employers and other health care purchasers. And its report is one of several tools available to patients researching where to get care.
'I was born here': Danny DeVito gives big gift to Jersey Shore University Medical Center
Of the nine hospitals in Monmouth and Ocean counties, four received A's; four received B's; and one received a C. By comparison, the hospitals last spring received seven A's, one B; and one C. Put another way, if hospitals were students, their collective GPA would have fallen from 3.7 to 3.3.
The Shore's hospitals weren't alone. New Jersey hospitals, which had the best performance in the nation last spring, fell to 13th this fall after the percentage of A's dropped from 51.5% to 35.8%, the Leapfrog Group said.
The state's hospitals showed improvement in limiting three hospital-acquired infections, officials said.
Unions: NJ must force hospitals to hire more nurses, or more will keep quitting
But "the drop in A’s reminds us that quality improvement is a continuous journey that requires attention and persistence," said Adelisa Perez-Hudgins, director of quality for the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, which has partnered with the Leapfrog Group. "Top-rated hospitals are focused on evaluation, education and supporting people working at all levels of their organization.”
Among the hospitals with lower grades this time was Monmouth Medical Center, which had previously never received any grade lower than an A in the 11 years that the Leapfrog Group had published its grades. It was the only local hospital to lay claim to the top grade, year in, year out.
In the most recent survey, Monmouth Medical Center fared below average in five categories: doctor communication; air embolism; falls and trauma; death rate among surgical inpatients with serious treatable condition; and a composite of 10 other patient safety indicators.
“Since the Leapfrog Group introduced hospital safety grades in 2012, Monmouth Medical Center, a teaching hospital providing complex medical care, has earned 22 ‘A’ grades," said Eric Carney, president and chief executive officer of Monmouth Medical Center. "We remain committed to our journey as a high reliability organization and central to that is an ongoing commitment to continuous quality improvement and the highest standard of care."
Carney, who also is president and CEO of Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, noted that that hospital maintained its A grade.
Medicare enrollment: What you need to know without listening to Joe Namath in commercials
How did your local hospital perform? Here is a look:
Bayshore Medical Center, Holmdel
Fall 2023: B
Spring 2023: A
Bayshore Medical Center: Multimillion-dollar renovation ends with new main entrance
CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township
Fall 2023: C
Spring 2023: C
CentraState cyberattack: Why are hospitals so vulnerable to hackers?
Community Medical Center, Toms River
Fall 2023: A
Spring 2023: A
Community Medical Center: Hospital spending $600M over next decade for giant renovations
Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune
Fall 2023: A
Spring 2023: A
Painless brain surgery? Jersey Shore hospital's tumor-fighting machine makes it possible
Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch
Fall 2023: B
Spring 2023: A
Expansion plans: Cancer care part of $200M Monmouth Medical campus under construction at Fort Monmouth site
Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus, Lakewood
Fall 2023: A
Spring 2023: A
'They will walk you through': Health care interpreters smash more than language barrier
Ocean University Medical Center, Brick
Fall 2023: A
Spring 2023: A
Ocean University Medical Center: $20M heart lab can save lives every day with new tech
Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank
Fall 2023: B
Spring 2023: A
Social workers instead of cops? Red Bank experiments with money from opioid settlement
Southern Ocean Medical Center, Stafford
Fall 2023: B
Spring 2023: B
Medical building: Years after Stafford housing plans flopped, whole new purpose found for this land
Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Monmouth Medical, Bayshore Medical, Riverview Medical safety marks dip
