Groups representing hospitals, including the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, were quick to criticize the release of the quality ratings system as hasty. On average, safety net hospitals hospitals earned slightly lower ratings, with a mean of 2.88 stars, than did non-safety net hospitals, which garnered an average rating of 3.09 stars, according to distribution datareleased Thursday by CMS.
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Bruce Siegel, MD, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, also said AEH is “disappointed” in CMS for releasing the ratings “when so many questions remain about the data behind the ratings and their value to consumers”. Of the rest of the hospitals, 20.3% garnered four stars, 38.5% received three, 15.7% earned two stars and 2.9% received a single star.
“The Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating is created to help individuals, their family members and caregivers compare hospitals in an easily understandable way”, federal officials said.
Fifteen of Connecticut’s 26 rated hospitals received three stars, including its largest, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the only state-run hospital, UConn Health.
Following Goodrich’s announcement, the American Hospital Association – which has avidly opposed the star ratings for some time – released a public statement lambasting the agency for releasing the ratings before they were ready. Nationwide, 4 percent of hospitals received one star. The star ratings accomplish neither. “We continue to work closely with the National Quality Forum and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, who is required by the IMPACT Act to study the effect of socioeconomic status on quality measures and payment programs based on measures”.
The data compares how each hospitals compares to an national average of hospitals on mortality, safety, readmission rates, effectiveness and timeliness of care, efficient use of medical imaging and patient experience. “They are based on a deeply flawed methodology that does not take into account important differences in the patient populations and the complexity of conditions that teaching hospitals treat”.
Otherwise, 76 hospitals in Florida earned three stars and 61 earned two stars. Currently, 937 hospitals do not have an overall star rating. “This does not necessarily mean that a hospital did not report any data, or that a hospital provides poor quality care”, Aaron Albright, CMS’s director of media relations, said in an email.
While CMS delayed the release of the most recent ratings, it conducted significant outreach and education to hospitals to understand their concerns and directly answered their questions, she said.
The star rating will be updated quarterly, and will incorporate new measures as they are publicly reported on the website as well as remove measures retired from the quality reporting programs, Goodrich said.
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According to AHA, which is led by president and CEO Rick Pollack, the star ratings do not present an accurate portrayal of hospital quality or patient satisfaction. “Yet, thus far, it is unclear whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) star ratings actually provide accurate and reliable data to the public”.
