Just 251 U.S. hospitals got the highest score on a new five-star rating system the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced in late April. Riverwood Healthcare Center is one of 11 Minnesota hospitals given the five-star rating. 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 health care providers. These ratings are based on patient survey comments gathered by CMS from July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 as part of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.
The hospital star ratings are based on the average ratings from patients in 11 areas, including nurse and doctor communication, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management and cleanliness.
“It is an honor to rank among the top 7 percent of hospitals nationwide, based upon feedback from our patients,” says Chad Cooper, chief executive officer. “Consistently providing high quality care and positively impacting our patients’ experience speaks to the dedication and teamwork of everyone at Riverwood!”
More than 3,500 U.S. hospitals had a new summary rating applied to their Hospital Compare pages beginning April 16, 2015. According to a review of the data by Modern Healthcare, a total of 101 hospitals received the lowest ranking of one star; 582 received two stars; 1,414 received three stars; 1,205 received four stars; and 251 received the highest ranking of five stars.
For more information on specific ratings for hospitals, go to https://data.medicare.gov/Hospital-Compare/Patient-survey-HCAHPS-Hospital/dgck-syfz