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Saint Michael’s has been recognized by Healthgrades as a 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient

Saint Michael’s Medical Center, a member of Prime Healthcare, announced today that it has been recognized by Healthgrades as a 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient.

This distinction places Saint Michael’s among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading marketplace connecting patients and providers. This is the fifth consecutive year that Saint Michael’s has achieved this prestigious recognition.

Saint Michael’s is the only hospital in Newark and in Essex County to receive the 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award. Saint Michael’s has also been awarded an A for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group six times since 2018.

“Through our 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Awards, we seek to recognize hospitals that excel in providing top-quality care for their patients while preventing serious injuries during hospital stays,” said Brad Bowman, MD, chief medical officer and head of Data Science for Healthgrades. “We are proud to name Saint Michael’s as a 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient and look forward to their continued efforts to make patient safety a top priority.”

If all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to the 2023 Patient Safety Award recipients, on average, 95,880 patient safety events could have been avoided.*

“We take great pride in being named among the top 5% of all hospitals in the United States for patient safety,” said Saint Michael’s CEO Alan Sickles, MD. “We have made patient safety our top priority at Saint Michael’s and our entire staff deserves credit for their dedication to delivering safe, high-quality care every day.”

Prime Healthcare’s other two hospitals in New Jersey, Saint Clare’s in Denville and St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic, also received the 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award. Prime Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading health systems, had more Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients than any other health system for the last eight years, according to Healthgrades.

During the 2019-2021 study period, 164,592 potentially preventable patient safety events occurred among Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals.* Healthgrades found that just four patient safety indicators accounted for 74% of all patient safety events: hip fracture due to an in-hospital fall, collapsed lung resulting from a procedure/surgery, pressure or bed sores acquired in the hospital, and catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in-hospital. Healthgrades’ analysis also revealed that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Healthgrades 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average:

  • 4%% less likely to experience an in-hospital fall resulting in hip fracture, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals*
  • 7% less likely to experience a collapsed lung resulting from a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals*
  • 1% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals*
  • 3% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at nonrecipient hospitals*

Consumers can visit healthgrades.com for more information on how Healthgrades measures hospital quality and access the complete methodology here.

*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 2022.0.1) for MedPAR data years 2019 through 2021 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.