The Leapfrog organization, a national nonprofit that focuses on improvements in hospital patient safety, has released its fall 2024 hospital safety ratings.
Of the hospitals frequently used by county residents, Inspira Medical Center Vineland received an A grade, both campuses of AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center got a B, as did the recently renamed Cooper University Hospital Cape Regional in Court House and the Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, and Cooper University Hospital in Camden received a C. The ratings range from A to F.
Cooper University health Care, which includes Cooper University Hospital in Camden, this year became a player in the local health scene when it acquired Cape Regional Medical Center and renamed it Cooper University Hospital Cape Regional.
A major contributor to the C grade for Cooper’s flagship hospital in Camden came in the area of infections of hospital patients, which were significantly higher than the average hospital score. The hospital received an A grade as recently as the spring of 2023, which was downgraded to a B in the fall of that year and then to the C grade it received for spring and fall 2024.
Responding to the two consecutive C grades, Cooper issued a statement saying that Cooper University Health Care is committed to “the highest standards of quality and patient safety” and is “proud to be the first Level 1 Trauma Center in the state to receive a Leapfrog A grade,” referencing 2023.
The statement continued by critiquing the Leapfrog methodology, which it claims “fails to account for hospital size, socioeconomic variations, and acuity difference in patients between hospitals.” Cooper said that lacking an adjustment for “more complex and critically injured patients” puts a hospital like Cooper at a “disadvantage to smaller community hospitals in Leapfrog grading.”
The statement notes Cooper’s recent high rankings by U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek.
Leapfrog was formed in 2000 by large employers concerned about the results of a 1999 Institute of Medicine report that found a large number of people die or are harmed each year by preventable hospital mistakes.
The organization’s ratings – the latest were released Nov. 15 – have become an industry-leading statistic that hospitals that do well often prominently display; grades are updated twice annually. The grade reflects evaluation across 30 performance measures, including rates of preventable errors, injuries and infections, and whether hospitals have systems in place to prevent safety problems.
In 2024 New Jersey had 67 acute-care hospitals reviewed, with 31 receiving A grades, 23 receiving B grades and 13 receiving C grades. No D or F grades were issued in the state. Nationally the organization rates almost 3,000 hospitals.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
