New Jersey Hospital Quality Check: CMS Ratings Show 5-Star Leaders and a Surge of 1- & 2-Star Facilities
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Hackensack NJ, if you live in New Jersey, the quality of care at your local hospital matters. The latest release of quality ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides a crucial look at which NJ hospitals are leading the nation in care and which ones are struggling.
The overall news for the Garden State is mixed: while a few institutions shine with the highest marks, more than one-third of New Jersey’s 79 hospitals received two stars or less, signaling significant areas for improvement.
The Top Tier: Only 4 Hospitals Earn 5-Star Status
The CMS overall star rating summarizes performance across five key quality areas: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely/effective care. The rating shows how well a hospital performs compared to others nationwide.
Only four hospitals in New Jersey achieved the prestigious five-star rating, demonstrating exceptional performance in patient outcomes and safety:
| Star Rating | New Jersey Hospitals (The Best) |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 Stars) | Hackensack University Medical Center |
| Hunterdon Medical Center (Raritan Township) | |
| Morristown Medical Center | |
| St Luke’s Warren Hospital (Phillipsburg) |
Central Jersey Spotlight: Hunterdon Medical Center, one of the four highest-rated hospitals, proudly received this top recognition “year over year,” according to CEO Patrick Gavin.
The Mid-Range and the Struggle: Where Most Hospitals Land
The majority of NJ hospitals fell into the middle or lower tiers of the CMS ratings:
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Four Stars (12 Hospitals): Includes institutions like Valley Hospital (Ridgewood), Chilton Medical Center (Pompton Plains), Englewood Hospital, and Overlook Medical Center (Summit).
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Three Stars (16 Hospitals): Includes Cooper University Hospital (Camden), Holy Name Medical Center (Teaneck), and Jersey Shore University Medical Center (Neptune).
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Two Stars (17 Hospitals): This group includes major hospitals like Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (Livingston) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick).
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One Star (12 Hospitals): This group includes facilities like Community Medical Center (Toms River), Clara Maass Medical Center (Belleville), and The University Hospital (Newark).
Patient Experience: Communication and Cleanliness
Beyond clinical outcomes, CMS also scores hospitals based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, which focuses purely on the patient experience—measuring things like communication with doctors/nurses, cleanliness, and staff responsiveness.
In the separate patient experience survey, no NJ hospital received five stars, and only four received a four-star rating, underscoring that even high-performing hospitals face challenges in optimizing the patient stay.
What Low-Rated Hospitals Are Saying
For hospitals receiving two stars or less, continuous improvement is the stated focus. A spokesperson for RWJBarnabas Health noted that while CMS ratings are important, they are not the only measure of quality.
“We are currently concentrating on monitoring and improving in key areas such as patient safety, experience and mortality rates,” stated an RWJBarnabas Health representative. “As we continue to make improvements in these areas, our overall outcomes and ratings will also continue to improve.”
Need to Check Your Hospital?
The overall CMS rating is designed to help consumers make informed decisions by combining data on crucial factors like readmissions and deaths following complex procedures (e.g., heart attacks or pneumonia).
For further details about these ratings and the full list of rated facilities, visit the federal agency’s official website at cms.gov.
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