CMS updated patient satisfaction survey data on its Hospital Compare website July 25, calculating new HCAHPS summary star ratings for 3,504 hospitals.
The summary ratings program, launched in April 2015, assigns hospitals a one- through five-star rating based on HCAHPS scores. To calculate these scores, CMS assigns hospitals a star rating for each of the 11 HCAHPS questions before combining all the ratings into one comprehensive metric. Read more about the method here.
The most recent update is based on HCAHPS survey data collected between Oct. 1, 2015 and Sept. 30, 2016. CMS did not assign star ratings to 1,307 hospitals due to insufficient data for these facilities.
Here is the breakdown:
Five stars: 215 hospitals
Four stars: 1,203 hospitals
Three stars: 1,468 hospitals
Two stars: 543 hospitals
One star: 76 hospitals
Patient experience star ratings differ from CMS' Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program, which incorporates outcomes measures, as well as patient experience scores. CMS last updated these scores December 2016. The agency planned to release updated overall star ratings this July, but pushed back the release date until October after identifying data issues, according to a notification from the Advisory Board.
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