Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Few Hospitals Get Five Stars For Patient Satisfaction
Modern Healthcare: Only 251 U.S. Hospitals Receive Top Ranking On Patient Experience
Just 251 U.S. hospitals got the highest score on a new five-star rating system the CMS rolled out Thursday. The new ratings are part of a broader initiative by the federal agency to use a five-star rating system across all of its Web pages intended to help consumers compare the quality of healthcare providers. (Rice, 4/16)
Earlier Kaiser Health News coverage: Only 251 Hospitals Score Five Stars In Medicare’s New Ratings (Rau, 4/16) and a list showing how states performed as well as a chart of individual hospital ratings.
Chicago Tribune: Few Chicago-Area Hospitals Shine In Government's New Patient Star Ratings
In Illinois, the Chicago area stood out for having some of the lowest-rated hospitals — six received just one star — along with a handful of highly rated facilities that have focused on making hospital visits less unpleasant. Of the 65 hospitals rated in Cook and the collar counties, just one received the top score of five stars: Midwestern Regional Medical Center, a cancer treatment center in Zion. Fourteen received four stars, according to Medicare data posted Thursday to the federal Hospital Compare site. (Venteicher, Hirst and Rau, 4/16)
Philadelphia Inquirer: 12 Local Hospitals Score High In Medicare's New Star System
The mind-bogglingly complex American health-care system took a step toward user-friendliness Thursday when the federal government assigned star ratings - 1 to 5, like restaurant and movie reviews - for patient satisfaction at thousands of U.S. hospitals. ... Many leading hospitals received middling ratings, while comparatively obscure community hospitals and others that specialize in lucrative surgeries frequently received the most stars. In the Philadelphia region, for example, just two hospitals - Physicians Care Surgical Hospital in Montgomery County and Cancer Treatment Centers of America's Eastern Regional Medical Center in Crescentville - scored five stars. Ten, including the highly regarded Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, received four stars. (Sapatkin, 4/16)
The Charlotte Observer: Charlotte-Area Hospitals Rank Good To Average In New Ratings
In an effort to make evaluating hospitals more like comparing refrigerator models and restaurants, the federal government has awarded its first star ratings to hospitals based on patients’ appraisals. Like many of the nation’s leading hospitals, most Charlotte-area hospitals received middling ratings. By comparison, some obscure hospitals and others that specialized in lucrative surgeries frequently received the most stars. (Rau and Garloch, 4/16)
The Baltimore Sun: No Maryland Hospital Gets Five Stars Under New Federal Rating System
Maryland hospital, not even world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital, earned a top score under a new, simplified ranking system for patient satisfaction released Thursday by federal health care authorities. The new system — which assigns one to five stars — is based on patient surveys and aims to make it easier for consumers to digest information, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which publishes the survey information as well as some safety measurements on its Hospital Compare website. (Cohn, 5/16)
