 92.7 WOBM Sean and Sue with you on a brand-new Thursday morning with Kelly Clarkson 842 69 degrees and Sue we are joined by two of our friends here this morning hack and sack meridian health co-CEO's Bob Garrett and John Lloyd are here with us this morning to talk about some new things from US News and World Report Bob and John good morning and welcome back gentlemen morning and Everything going at the hospital everything good amazing yeah everything is great perfect news to share with your listeners excellent well Bob can you start things off give us some details about your top rankings in US News and World Report sure Sean we're really pleased to to announce that four of our hospitals at Hack and Sack Meridian Health are amongst the top 10 hospitals in the state of New Jersey as ranked by US News and World Report so Hack and Sack University Medical Center is number one in the state for six straight years since US News started doing these rankings so you know kudos to the team congratulations Hack and Sack awesome but even better news this year three other hospitals are in that top 10 so Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune came in at number four great team over there too they're providing excellent excellent patient care and then Ocean Medical Center a rear review Medical Center we're tied at number eight and what this means is really it's it's the award is great but it's really about the hard work the patient outcomes the quality of care that's delivered each and every day by those by those teams so could not be more proud of the doctors the nurses the entire team throughout the network and by having four hospitals in that top 10 there's no other health system in New Jersey that comes even close so we're we're really proud though that's what a team effort so John let me ask you you know when we talk about what does this tell folks about your hospitals that they might not already know do consumers take these rankings like US News and World Report to heart yes there's no question that the consumers look at these rankings we have a social media and we're in constant contact with all of our constituents and listeners and everyone else so absolutely it matters whether whether someone is looking for a new physician or whether they are already have a physician they're very interested in how the organization ranks and how the physicians ranked yeah now Bob let me ask you actually ask both of you what does it take to get these top rankings is it all about recruitment of physicians nursing staff best equipment like MRIs robotic surgery all of the above what do the two of you feel you know adds to this and it really is all of the all of the above you know what you really have to have the top doctors in place the the nursing team and I have to say with the nursing team we've you know we've been a magnet health system magnet hospitals which is really recognizes nursing excellence we've been you know at Hackensack was the first in the nation to become a magnet certified hospital behind the pilot program out on the west coast so the physician you know recruiting the top physicians is very important not only for the patient care that they render but they're they're teaching their their research the technology is really important to us news and war report you know us news really recognizes that the top hospitals around the country are hospitals that really have perfected various procedures within their area and you know it it's about the number of cases that are done but it's also about using really state-of-the-art technology so really proud of the it's it's it's truly a team effort it's it's the doctors the nurses the technology the facilities you know the entire health care team that really can produce the kind of results that us news and war report recognizes and just add to that Sean we Hackensack Meridian Health is recognized nationally for certain specialties and those specialties are oncology neurology neurosurgery orthopedic urology and open heart surgery so again these this is another ranking and we do very very well in these rankings and we have one you know in particular in our children's hospital that has received national rankings as well and that's for pediatric neurosciences for neurology and neurosurgery which is really really important it's great to have that kind of expertise locally and in terms of magnet status which Bob talked about yeah only about seven or eight percent of organizations in a whole country achieve magnet status and we now have I think seven of our hospitals that have achieved that you know Sue and I were talking off the air before you know knowing you were coming in today and we were mentioning how health care is such a big item you cannot go through a newscast you cannot go through a day reading the newspaper reading blogs whatever it is without health care coming up it is every single day the issue of health yeah there's no doubt about it and you know of course there's a lot of attention now on in Washington as to whether the Affordable Care Act is going to be amended or repealed or replaced so that's something that we we follow closely and you know we we just want to make sure that there's good health care coverage good health care insurance for all residents of New Jersey excellent and show one other thing I want to mention is a big shout out to six of our long-term care and rehab centers who are also recognized by US News and World Report and also by Medicare for having five star rating which is the highest rating you can get and wow six of our facilities achieve that and again only 13% of all facilities in the country achieve that so it's been a great a great a great month for us with all these recognitions and as Bob said it's not so much the award it really is a tribute to the team members and to our nurses and physicians who do a great job day in a day but it feels good it just like we did when you know when you're whether you're in fifth grade and you come home with straight A's on your report card or you're you know here we are as adults and you get your business report card it comes too strong like this five stars certainly better than one there you go definitely definitely gentlemen thank you for being with us hack and sack meridian health co-CEO's Bob Garrett and John Lloyd always good to have you in and let us know what's going on with our health care guys thank you very much for having us thank you it's always a pleasure