Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

After Delay And Debate, Government Finally Releases Hospital Star Ratings

By Daniel Seeger | July 27, 2016

Share

As promised, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today offered up what they are terming the “First Release of the Overall Hospital Star Rating.” The ratings are accessible through the Hospital Compare page on Medicare.gov.

The embattled assessment of hospitals was first slated for release in the spring, but pressure from Congress, largely responding to concerns of the hospital industry, caused the Obama administration to tap the brakes. In recent weeks, consumer advocacy groups, such as the National Partnership for Women & Families, have brought their own pressure to bear in favor of finally sharing the information.

In a blog post, Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS, the director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality with the CMS, terms the star ratings as “a step forward in our commitment to transparency” and offers assurance that the evaluation of facilities and the ranking system itself are ongoing, evolving processes. She writes, “CMS will continue to analyze the star rating data and consider public feedback to make enhancements to the scoring methodology as needed.” Goodrich promises quarterly updates moving forward.

The star ratings draw from data already published on the Hospital Compare site, pulling from as many as 64 quality measures and crunching the numbers together to emerge with a “unified rating” on a scale ranging from one star to five stars. According to a CMS fact sheet, “The Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating is designed to help individuals, their family members, and caregivers compare hospitals in an easily understandable way.”

In the blog post, Goodrich also details the agency’s efforts to assuage the concerns of the hospital industry, noting, “We have conducted significant outreach and education to hospitals to understand their concerns and directly answered their questions.”

Whether or not those outreach efforts had the desired effect is highly debatable. Several industry figures were quick to freshly condemn the governmental ratings. Rick Pollack, president of the American Hospital Association, issued a statement that complains, “Health care consumers making critical decisions about their care cannot be expected to rely on a rating system that raises far more questions than answers.” Chip Kahn, the president and CEO is Federation of American Hospitals, is more blunt, saying in a statement, the star ratings are “not ready for primetime” and insisting, “CMS should go back to the drawing board.”

As was previously reported, 102 hospitals received the top rating of five stars, and 133 were dinged with a one star rating. A total of 937 hospital were not given a star rating, because the CMS doesn’t have sufficient data on them to work within the current methodology.

Those basic numbers may have been available already, but today was the first time the general public could see where individual hospitals landed on the five star scale. Kaiser Health News dug into the database and found some highly-regarded facilities failed to achieve the top rating, naming Stanford Health Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Cleveland Clinic among those that somewhat surprisingly had to settle for four stars.


Filed Under: Industry regulations

 

Related Articles Read More >

ids-industrial-camera-manufacturer.sustainability-3
IDS focuses on sustainability in shipping
Part 5: Motion control + MQTT, OPC-UA, and other protocols for cloud services
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Calls for More Outside Regulation
Musk’s Boring Company Calls it Quits on LA Tunnel, Instead Focuses on Hyperloop

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Global supply needs drive increased manufacturing footprint development
  • How to Increase Rotational Capacity for a Retaining Ring
  • Cordis high resolution electronic proportional pressure controls
  • WAGO’s custom designed interface wiring system making industrial applications easier
  • 10 Reasons to Specify Valve Manifolds
  • Case study: How a 3D-printed tool saved thousands of hours and dollars

Design World Podcasts

May 17, 2022
Another view on additive and the aerospace industry
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings