Medical education has long played a key role at MMC. In June, the hospital celebrated the 80th anniversary of its Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program -- the first such program in New Jersey -- as it graduated its class of 2025.
Long Branch, NJ, December 15, 2025 –Highlighting its nationally recognized achievements in patient safety and quality, Monmouth Medical Center (MMC), a Regional Medical Campus of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has been named a Top Teaching Hospital by The Leapfrog Group for a fourth time.
Announced today at the Leapfrog Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner, the Leapfrog Top Hospital award is widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive honors American hospitals can receive. The Top Hospital designation is awarded by The Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog organization.
Among thousands of hospitals in the country, MMC was one of just 73 of the nation’s hospitals recognized as a Top Teaching Hospital, and among just four in New Jersey, and the only hospital in Monmouth and Ocean counties to be included on the Leapfrog list. The Top Teaching Hospital Award comes on the heels of MMC’s 26th overall “A” Hospital Safety Grade, also from the Leapfrog Group.
“This impressive achievement is a testament to our respected reputation as a university-level medical center that attracts the top physicians to our teaching faculty,” said President and CEO Eric Carney. “Our resident physicians and medical students are an integral part of our RWJBarnabas Health mission to partner with our communities to build and sustain a healthier New Jersey as an academic health system. This recognition also speaks to our vision to be the premier health care destination providing patient-centered, high-quality academic medicine in a compassionate and equitable manner.”
MMC serves as a regional medical campus of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to teach third- and fourth-year medical students. It is a member of the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the Association of American Medical Colleges, a status held by only 400 of the nation’s 6,000 hospitals, and trains residents and fellows in Dental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pathology, Pediatrics, Pharmacy, Diagnostic Radiology and General Surgery.
Medical education has long played a key role at MMC. In fact, in 1945, the hospital established its first residency program in orthopaedics – the first such program in New Jersey – to meet the needs of physicians returning from World War II trained in treating battlefield trauma. In June, the hospital celebrated the 80th anniversary of its Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program as it graduated its class of 2025.
“As a teaching hospital, Monmouth Medical Center prides itself not just on providing excellent health care, but on preparing the physicians of tomorrow,” said Chief Academic Officer Dr. Joseph Jaeger. “Widely recognized for the quality of their programs, teaching hospitals are responsible for training new generations of physicians and are the frontrunners in medical research and technology.”
Performance across many areas of hospital care is considered in establishing the qualifications for the award, including infection rates, maternity care, and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors. The rigorous standards are defined in each year’s Top Hospital Methodology.
“This year marks Leapfrog’s 25th anniversary—and the 25th year of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey—making it especially meaningful to recognize our 2025 Top Hospitals and Top ASCs,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “These honorees are a testament to the extraordinary dedication of these facilities’ entire teams, boards, clinicians, administrators, staff and community volunteers. You don’t achieve results like this without everyone putting their heart into patient care.”
To qualify for the Top Hospitals distinction, hospitals must submit a Leapfrog Hospital Survey and achieve the highest performance scores in its category. The selection of Top Hospitals 2025 is based on surveys from nearly 1,900 hospitals. To see the full list of institutions honored as 2025 Top Hospitals, visit www.leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.
Contact: Kathy Horan
(732) 546-6317
Kathy.Horan@rwjbh.org