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Can Choosing Your Hospital be a Life or Death Decision?

In our last Medical Malpractice blog post, we wrote about New Jersey’s Hospital Grades and the poor safety marks that so many of our state’s hospitals received. We discussed how alarming this report could be for many of New Jersey’s residents and how it definitely caught the attention of our medical malpractice lawyers here at Mintz & Geftic.

Knowing which hospitals are considered the least safe is important for residents of Elizabeth and all around New Jersey. However, understanding which of New Jersey hospitals performed the best in this study can also be valuable. 

We realize that unfortunately most patients don’t have the luxury of choosing where they receive their care, but everyone should still realize that a difference between two hospitals can sometimes be the difference between life and death. See the numbers in the next section to learn why.

Bad Grades = More Hospital Deaths

This year, the Leapfrog commissioned its own analysis by the Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to predict the risk of dying in hospitals that do not score an A. 

The analysis found deaths were 9 percent higher at B hospitals, 35 percent higher in C hospitals, and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals than in A hospitals.

New Jersey’s Top Five Hospitals 

Using public data and patient surveys, the Leapfrog Group’s report examines the incidence of preventable medical errors and dangerous outcomes, including blood clots, infections, bed sores and falls. The group looks at staffing and management practices in hospitals, whether Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are used to manage prescriptions and how well doctors and nurses communicate with patients.

Five New Jersey hospitals have earned straight A’s since the Leapfrog Group began evaluating the safety records of more than 2,500 hospitals nationwide in 2012. They are:

  1. Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey
  2. Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey
  3. Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey
  4. Jersey City Medical Center in Jersey City, New Jersey
  5. Saint Clare’s Hospital in Denville, New Jersey

What These Top Hospitals Have in Common

  • All are located in northern New Jersey, with two in Bergen County and one each in Hudson, Essex and Morris counties.
  • All belong to a larger system or chain.
  • All use Leapfrog’s 30 safety measures to shape how they hire and train nurses and doctors, communicate with patients and avoid preventable risks such as infections, bed sores and falls.
  • All still are a risk when it comes to medical malpractice. 

Our medical malpractice lawyers see cases from the “safest” hospitals and some of the top doctors every single year, so New Jersey patients need to understand mistakes can (and do) occur everywhere.

 

New Jersey and New York Medical Malpractice Lawyers

We give personal attention to all of our clients. If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of medical malpractice, call us today at 908-352-2323 or send us email by clicking here to evaluate your case.

Our medical malpractice lawyers based in Elizabeth, New Jersey serve clients throughout New Jersey, and New York, including the cities of Newark, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Hackensack, and Morris, Bergen, Hudson, Union and Middlesex counties. We have offices in Elizabeth, New Jersey and New York City.

 

Sources: 

http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2016/04/these_hospitals_are_the_safest_in_new_jersey.html#incart_river_mobile_home_pop

http://www.leapfroggroup.org/compare-hospitals

Bryan Mintz

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