See our map of hospital star ratings

CMS on April 25 updated its Hospital Compare website with new Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) summary star ratings.

Just updated: Your CMS HCAHPS patient experience star rating cheat sheet

CMS' summary star rating scores hospitals on a one-to-five-star scale based on the 11 publicly reported measures in HCAHPS survey, which assesses patient experiences. The agency started assigning hospitals patient experience star ratings based solely on HCAHPS scores in April 2015. The latest update is based on HCAHPS survey data collected between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017.

4 ways patient experience may be costing you

The patient experience summary star ratings are distinct from CMS' overall quality star ratings, which are scheduled to be updated in July. Overall star ratings are based on 62 quality measures from seven categories: effectiveness of care, efficient use of imaging, mortality, patient experience, readmissions, safety, and timeliness of care.

How hospitals fared

According to CMS, 3,466 hospitals had an HCAHPS summary star rating as of April 25. Of those hospitals:

• 213 received five stars;
• 1,177 received four stars;
• 1,522 received three stars;
• 495 received two stars; and
• 59 received one star (CMS HCAHPS Stars Rating Distributions, April 2018; HCAHPS Star Ratings Technical Notes, accessed 5/8).

Star ratings reflect HCAHPS surveys competed between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017, as displayed in the Hospital Compare update released on April 25, 2018.

Just updated: Your CMS HCAHPS patient experience star rating cheat sheet

Download our one page sheet for a summary on the methodology and metric categories used in the CMS HCAHPS Patient Experience Star Rating.

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