Star ratings are used a lot. They help us easily see whether a critic thinks the next blockbuster is terrible or if that new restaurant has awful service.
But until now you didn’t have a star rating for hospital quality.
For the first time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will introduce star ratings to help consumers understand the quality of care that a hospital delivers.
The star rating will be based on data from hospital surveys used since 2006.
Hospitals will get an overall star rating and then a separate star rating for 11 topics that are part of the survey. Independent topics include communication from nurses and doctors with patients, how responsive staff was to patient’s needs, and whether a hospital is clean and quiet.
The ratings will be updated every quarter.
While consumers have been able to search through annual “best of” lists to find the best hospitals, they have not been able to learn which are the worst or check their local hospitals. The agency’s star ratings will help them.
The agency already uses star ratings for nursing homes and dialysis centers. Physicians also are starting to be rated by stars but only in certain situations for physician group practices.
