New Jersey ranks No. 12 among states with the most A-ratings from Leapfrog, a hospital safety watchdog that assigns letter grades to 3,000 facilities nationwide based on 30 measures of patient safety.

The spring 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade results were announced May 10. Though New Jersey’s ranking fell from No. 9 in the fall 2021 grades, 43.5% of general hospitals today get the A-rating, while 43.9% did in the previous assessment.

Seventy New Jersey hospitals were graded overall, with 30 receiving A marks, 15 receiving B marks, 19 receiving C marks, and seven receiving D marks. The Safety Grade is the only rating solely focused on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

In the fall, 30 New Jersey hospitals made A marks as well, up from 26 in spring 2021.

Recent studies, however, have shown that the pandemic has reversed years of progress on patient safety efforts, according to Leapfrog.

“The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients’ experience with their care appears to have suffered,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care—from communication to responsiveness—and get back on track with patient safety outcomes.”

Hospital performance is available online at HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

“Despite a general decrease in patient experience ratings, spring Grades continue to show significant variation in safety performance across U.S. hospitals,” Binder said. “This variability is a constant reminder that the public must have access to information on which hospitals are safer so patients can make the best decision for themselves and their loved ones.”

New Jersey hospitals that snagged an A rating:

• Hackensack Meridian Bayshore Medical Center – Holmdel
• Capital Health Medical Center – Hopewell Pennington
• Chilton Medical Center – Pompton Plains
• Englewood Hospital and Medical Center – Englewood
• Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center – North Bergen
• Hackensack Meridian Pascack Valley Medical Center – Westwood
• Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center – Brick
• Hackensack Meridian Old Bridge Medical Center – Old Bridge
• Hackensack Meridian Raritan Bay Medical Center – Perth Amboy
• Hunterdon Medical Center – Flemington
• Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill – Mullica Hill
• Inspira Medical Center Vineland – Vineland
• Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital – Cherry Hill
• Jefferson Stratford Hospital – Stratford
• Jefferson Washington Township Hospital – Turnersville
• Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center – Neptune
• Monmouth Medical Center – Long Branch
• Morristown Medical Center – Morristown
• Newton Medical Center – Newton
• Overlook Medical Center – Summit
• Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center – Plainsboro
• Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center – Red Bank
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway – Rahway
• Saint Clare’s Hospital of Denville – Denville
• Saint Michael’s Medical Center – Newark
• Saint Peter’s University Hospital – New Brunswick
• St. Luke’s Warren Campus – Phillipsburg
• St. Mary’s General Hospital Passaic
• The Valley Hospital – Ridgewood
• Virtua Voorhees Hospital – Voorhees

Nationwide, 33% of hospitals received an A, 24% received a B, 36% received a C, 7% received a D, and less than 1% received an F. The states with the highest percentages of A hospitals are North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Colorado and Michigan. States completely without A hospitals were Wyoming, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and North Dakota.