Five Star Rating

Since 1999, HealthGrades has independently rated the quality of care at virtually all of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals. Based on hospitalization records that hospitals directly submit to state governments and Medicare, HealthGrades utilizes the most recent three years of data – approximately 40 million hospitalization records – to determine its star ratings and awards. Star ratings are based on mortality and complication rates that are risk adjusted, so that hospitals with different levels of patient acuity can be compared on equal footing.

The ratings reflect objective patient outcomes at the nation’s hospitals. No hospital can opt in or out of being rated by HealthGrades.

These ratings and awards are relied upon by millions of consumers visiting HealthGrades.com, and by hundreds of hospitals that use them to analyze their own quality and communicate those achievements to their communities, the media, employers and other stakeholders.

Thirty procedures and treatment areas at hospitals are rated by HealthGrades. In each category, hospitals receive a five-, three- or one-star rating, indicating that their risk-adjusted mortality or complications rates are above, at or below average.

In general, 70 percent to 80 percent of hospitals in each procedure/diagnosis are classified as three stars, with actual results statistically the same as predicted results. Approximately 10 percent to 15 percent were one-star hospitals and 10 percent to 15 percent were five-star hospitals.

These categories include: HealthGrades also rates hospitals in 10 clinical areas: HealthGrades ratings of procedures and diagnoses are performed annually and released each October along with HealthGrades’ annual Hospital Quality in America study.