MDNews - Central New Jersey

The numbers are in, and Somerset Medical Center has announced that its 5th Annual Steeplechase Distance Run raised more than $113,000, which will benefit educational programs for its patients and the community. There were more than 1,400 runners who participated in this year's event in honor or in memory of loved ones, or to celebrate their own recoveries. The event was different from past years, as the main distance run was a 10K course and also included a 5K run/walk, Kid Sprints, music, refreshments and more, over a scenic course in Hillsborough, N.J. The event was presented by Physicians for the Cure. Atlantic Health System and Chilton Hospital announced the completion of a merger, which adds the Pompton Plains-based hospital and affiliated Chilton Health Network sites to one of the largest nonprofit healthcare organizations in New Jersey. The merger became effective on Jan. 1, 2014, and as part of its addition to Atlantic Health System's facilities, the hospital will now be known as Chilton Medical Center , a change which better reflects the breadth of its services. Atlantic Health System currently owns and operates Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center in Summit, N.J., and Newton Medical Center and Goryeb Children's Hospital. As a member of the Chilton Health Network, Chilton has offered healthcare services and providers in communi - ties throughout north- western New Jersey. Hackensack University Health Network is pleased to an- nounce that two of its network hospitals, HackensackUMC and HackensackUMC Mountainside , have been honored with an "A" grade — the highest possible rating — in the fall 2013 update to the Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, er - rors, injuries and infections. The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation's leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group, an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety rating to be analyzed in the peer- reviewed Journal of Patient Safety, the score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families. The Leapfrog Group began its Hospital Safety Score last year, and calculates scores for more than 2,500 hospitals, published as an A, B, C, D or F letter grade. Hospitals receive a safety score twice a year based on the latest publicly reported data available. The Hospital Safety Score utilizes national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to produce a single composite score that represents a hospital's overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. In addition, secondary data from the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey was used to give hospitals as much credit as possible toward their safety scores. The Hospital Safety Score includes 28 measures, which are all currently in use by national measurement and reporting programs. Morristown Medical Center , part of Atlantic Health System, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary of performing cardiac sur- gery. Initially, Morristown Medical Center's cardiac facility was designed for 400 heart operations per year. The program took off immediately and performed 581 cases in 1989. Today, Gagnon surgeons perform more than 1,400 cases each year. Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute, a state-of-the-art, five-story, 230,000 square-foot build - ing situated on the Morristown Medical Center campus, is dedicated to meeting the challenges of adult heart and vascular diseases. It includes eight operating rooms (two hybrid), five catheterization labs, three electrophysiology labs and advanced nonin - vasive imaging capability. Atlantic Health System commemorated Primary Care Partners' (PCP) recent growth by announcing the network has expanded to more than 50 providers since its incep - tion two years ago. A clinically-affiliated network of family practice, internal medicine and pediatric physician groups, PCP was designed to improve and effectively coor - dinate patient care in northern New Jersey. Offering practice management and infor - mation technology solutions that enable physicians to focus more time on patients while meeting the demands of a changing healthcare environment, PCP is now the largest pure primary care organization in northern New Jersey with clinical strategic alliances with Atlantic Health System. Delia Figueroa, MD, a physician in Somerset Medical Center's Emergency Department, organized Team Jonathan in honor of her son who passed away from cancer in 2011. The team included loving family members, friends, coworkers and Jonathan's fraternity brothers. 2 2 | Central New Jersey MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M

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