Jersey City, NJ — Jersey City Medical today announces that it has been recognized as a Gold Level Antimicrobial Stewardship Recognition Program award recipient by the New Jersey Department of Health.
These awards follow the observance of Antibiotic Awareness Week, an annual recognition hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in November to raise awareness of the importance of appropriate antibiotic use to combat the threat of antibiotic resistance.
“At Jersey City Medical Center, we work diligently to ensure our patients receive the correct and proper dose of antibiotics. Improving patient care, safety, and cost is a constant effort in the face of looming antibiotic resistance. Inappropriate antimicrobial use is, unfortunately, a common occurrence and one we can say does not occur in our medical facility,” said Dr. Ije Akunyili, Chief Medical Officer at Jersey City Medical Center.
The New Jersey Antimicrobial Stewardship Recognition Awards is a voluntary incentive program that encourages health care facilities to submit stewardship materials in concordance with CDC’s Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship, a set of key principles to guide efforts to improve antibiotic use and advance patient safety and improve outcomes.
The complexity of antimicrobial use, reporting, tracking, and education in addition to the variability in health care facility size and types of care require flexible programs and activities.
About Jersey City Medical Center
Jersey City Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, is Healing, Enhancing, and Investing in Hudson County. It is a comprehensive full-service acute and sub-acute care 348-bed teaching hospital. A not-for-profit hospital, the Medical Center is a state-designated Level II Regional Trauma Center with close to 16,000 admissions and over 80,000 Emergency Department visits annually. The hospital specialty services include women’s health, orthopedics, heart and vascular care, and behavioral health. JCMC is the only full-service heart hospital in Hudson County, offering access to outstanding cardiologists and sophisticated and advanced treatments, such as cardiac surgery and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacements (TAVR). RWJBarnabas Health and Jersey City Medical Center are in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. JCMC is also a state designated stroke center, a regional comprehensive cardiac center, a perinatal intensive care center, a regional level 3 neonatal intensive care unit for critically ill newborns, and home to the most advanced robotic-assisted surgical program in Hudson County. JCMC, a provider of Advanced Life Support for Hudson County, runs 911 Medical Call Screening for Hudson County and operates one of the state’s busiest EMS systems.
Contact
Veronica Lavarro
Office: 201-395-7569
Mobile: 201-912-5143
E-mail: veronica.lavarro@rwjbh.org