- Overall Star Rating
- A summary score from CMS (1 to 5 stars) that combines several quality measures, including mortality, safety, readmissions, patient experience, and timely care. More stars generally indicate better performance on the available measures.
- Patient Experience
- How patients rated their recent hospital stay. This information comes from a national patient survey that asks about communication with doctors and nurses, staff responsiveness, cleanliness, quietness, and whether patients would recommend the hospital.
- Birthing-Friendly
- A CMS designation for hospitals that have taken specific steps to improve care for mothers and newborns. It does not by itself guarantee the best outcomes, but it signals a focus on maternity quality.
- VA Facility
- A hospital operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Many VA facilities do not report the same safety and infection measures as other hospitals in the public CMS data. This is common and does not necessarily mean the hospital lacks quality information — the VA uses its own reporting systems.
- Safety
- How the hospital compares to others on measures related to patient safety, such as certain complications and preventable events during a hospital stay.
- Infections
- How the hospital compares to others on infections that patients can get while receiving care in the hospital.
- Similar to most
- The hospital’s results on this measure are typical when compared with other hospitals that report the same data. It is neither clearly stronger nor clearly weaker than most.
- Stronger than most
- The hospital performed stronger than most other hospitals on this measure.
- Weaker than most
- The hospital performed weaker than most other hospitals on this measure.
- Hospital type / ownership
- Hospital type describes the kind of facility, such as an acute-care hospital. Ownership describes who operates it — government-owned, non-profit, or for-profit.
- Government-owned
- The hospital is owned by a government entity, such as a hospital district, county, or state.
- Non-profit
- The hospital is organized as a not-for-profit organization. Any surplus is generally reinvested in the organization or community rather than distributed to private owners.
- For-profit
- The hospital is owned by a private company or investors and is operated to generate a return for its owners.
- Not reported
- The hospital did not have enough data, or the data was not available, for this measure in the public files.