Saint Peter’s University Hospital has been recognized for the fourth consecutive year as a national “Top Performer on Key Quality Measures” by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in the United States.

Saint Peter’s was the only hospital in its geographic portion of central New Jersey — defined as Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon, and Mercer counties — to be cited on Tuesday for excellence in all six of the categories measured by The Joint Commission: heart failure, heart attack, surgical care, pneumonia, childhood asthma, and perinatal care.

Among those categories, Saint Peter’s was one of only two hospitals in New Jersey cited for excellence in the care of childhood asthma. In addition, Saint Peter’s was one of only 17 of the 71 hospitals in New Jersey that submitted data to receive the Top Performer award for 2014. On a broader scale, Saint Peter’s is among only six percent of Joint Commission-accredited hospitals in the United States to earn Top Performer status for clinical quality for four consecutive years. 

“Saint Peter’s is one of a handful of hospitals in New Jersey to be identified as meeting all of The Joint Commission measure requirements,” said Joan Gleason-Scott, PhD, RN, assistant vice president, quality, and safety management. “This was made possible through dedication, teamwork, organizational knowledge, and the ability to achieve and sustain excellence, a representation of our commitment to high quality and safe care for our patients.”

Saint Peter’s was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2015 annual report entitled “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety — The Joint Commission’s Annual Report,” which measured quality clinical performance by U.S. hospitals during the 2014 calendar year. The data collected during 2014 was the most diverse information ever collected from American hospitals by The Joint Commission, according to the accrediting organization.

The program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke, venous thromboembolism and perinatal care, and inpatient psychiatric services and immunizations.