What Do Rankings Mean for Patient Safety?

Just as it has every year for the last 26 years, U.S. News & World Report recently released its hospital rankings for 2016-2017. This year, the organization named Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the best hospital in the country.

Hospital rankings from U.S. News & World Report have been an annual staple for decades, designed to help consumers make “smart, well informed choices” about where they receive care. But the publication has been joined by a growing number of rating and scoring organizations?including, for the first time this year, the federal government.

Despite several months of pushback, including a letter signed by 60 U.S. senators urging delay, CMS released its “Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating” system, which rates every hospital in the country on a scale of one to five stars based on the hospital’s performance on 64 quality measures.

This is an excerpt from Patient Safety Monitor Journal. Subscribers can read the full article here. Find out more about the journal, it’s benefits, and how to subscribe by clicking here.