Promoting a culture of accountability and transparency in hospitals and improving the quality of patient data are top priorities for NJHA’s Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET). Through statewide educational initiatives, data reporting services and an integrated statewide database, HRET helps New Jersey hospitals to enhance their quality of care and patient safety, and improve the accuracy and reliability of patient information collected at registration.

Data Reports on Hospital Performance
HRET developed a compendium of existing reporting services in 2009 with information about major public report cards on hospital performance by the type of reporting agency, including federal, state, business and professional reporting sources.

Quality and Efficiency Statistical Trends Report: QUEST
Developed by HRET, this biannual hospital performance data report that presents the most recent scores of New Jersey hospitals on a set of healthcare performance and quality measures, compiled from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare Web site.

Improving Patient Race, Ethnicity and Language Data
To improve hospital practices of collecting and reporting patient race, ethnicity and language data and enhance accuracy and reliability of these data fields, HRET launched an intensive educational initiative targeting hospital access managers and registration staff. Through this initiative, HRET provides a set of standardized data collection guidelines, a training curriculum and educational tools and resources in a variety of formats.

New Jersey Electronic Birth Certificate System
The New Jersey Electronic Birth Certificate system is an integrated statewide database comprised of birth record information and perinatal data. Created by Genesis Systems Inc. in partnership with HRET and the state Department of Health, this database has numerous capabilities, including the ability to transfer birth records electronically.