but some good news for New Jersey's Health Care System the spring 2023 Hospital safety grades are in and Garden State hospitals receive the highest marks in the nation for patient safety grades from the LeapFrog group a national non-profit that advocates for Quality Care awarded nearly three dozen New Jersey hospitals with a grades the highest percentage of top scores in the nation Pennsylvania's system ranked Fourth Connecticut was Fifth and New York 40th and while hospitals and staff continue to recover from the devastating effects of the covid-19 pandemic New Jersey hospitals maintained positive grades even throughout this period Lilo Stainton spoke with Briana vannozzi about the importance of these ratings and what it all means for New Jersey residents seeking care Lilo good to see you as always we know that this survey I mean it's very highly regarded so how did New Jersey fare yeah they did really well I mean New Jersey almost always does well on these this year 51.5 percent of the hospitals that were rated got A's which was the highest number Nationwide hence the ranking number one I think it's important to keep in mind that number two I think it was Ohio had 50 percent so you know the margins are fairly slim but it's always nice to have some bragging rights I mean it helps of course that 100 participation happened in New Jersey and that's a really important point and that was something that the hospital Association mentioned when they put out a statement today they were saying you know we're really proud of not only this constant push to improve but also this this commitment to transparency um that has not always been easy in New Jersey but you know clearly we're the state with 100 participation and and we have been for a while and that's good news yeah so what are the metrics that they look at because we know that our Hospital systems are taxed right and especially where over the last few years during the pandemic yeah and that's something that comes up they admit that um you know they can see the the um the researchers say that that has done definitely had an impact one thing that they did find is that infection rates these sort of Hospital acquired infection rates are going up Nationwide and in New Jersey as well for at least one of the ones they look at so they look at things like you know are you getting an infection what's the likelihood of risk that you will get an infection if you have a catheter or a central line into IV line they look at communication between you know nurses and patients and doctors whether you understand your medication and these are things that have been shown to have an impact on patients yeah sure I mean that makes sense okay so where our typical leaders in this still at the top of the pack still being the straight A students generally speaking there's sometimes a little variation you know and and you know hospitals are as you would expect when they get an A they're very proud of it they just they come right away with that statement bragging it's in all of the marketing materials for the next year it's on you know it's on the signs it's ever everywhere when they get a c and it's important to note this another good thing for New Jersey good news for New Jersey was there no D and F ratings this year and we have had a D in the fall we had a couple D's and we've had F's in the past but you know when they get to see though hospitals will tend to say well you know they didn't look at this or they they overweighted that so there's always a little bit of back and forth with what the numbers are but you know it's a good news story and what is the very quickly the New Jersey Hospital Association have to say about it I mean you know our Workforce there has certainly been under duress I'm sure you know this is kind of good news situation yeah they they they clearly were they were saying you know transparency commitment to quality improvement this is a demonstration of that and you know they they should be proud it's a good thing I mean and I encourage people to look at you know the individual hospital if they're thinking of going somewhere take a look at that take a look back a couple years because it's not only one year data that you really need to get a full picture yeah it's something I always check for sure Lilo Stainton for us thanks Lilo thank you Bri [Music] [Music]