By Danielle Ray Kentucky Health News
The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday released its Overall Hospital Star Ratings , just two days after two U.S. House members introduced a bill that would delay the release for a year.
The ratings aim to give consumers a simple measure of hospital quality. Critics say they are too simple.
They rate 3 ,662 U.S. hospitals from one to five stars , with the latter representing the highest quality of care. Each hospital's rating is based on 64
measures of safety and performance in seven categories: mortality , safety of care , readmission within 30 days , patient experience , effectiveness of care , timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging.
"These easy-to-understand star ratings are available online and empower people to compare and choose across various types of facilities from nursing homes to home health agencies ," Dr. Kate Goodrich , director of Medicare's
Center for Clinical Standards and Quality , said Wednesday on CMS's official
here.
Twelve hospitals got two stars:
Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville ,
Harlan Appalachian Regional Healthcare Hospital ,
Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center ,
Jennie Stuart Medical Center in Hopkinsville ,
Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's Healthcare in Louisville ,
Kentucky River Medical Center in Jackson ,
Lourdes Hospital in Paducah ,
Monroe County Medical Center in Tompkinsville ,
St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington ,
St. Joseph East in Lexington ,
St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead and the
University of Kentucky Hospital.
Two hospitals earned just one star:
University of Louisville Hospital , where a recent state inspection found problems with nursing; and
Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset , which
ranked very poorly in the 2014 ratings by
Consumer Reports magazine. It got two stars last year , one of only six Kentucky hospitals to do so.
Rick Pollack , president and CEO of the
American Hospital Association , said he fears the ratings could mislead patients.
"The new CMS star ratings program is confusing for patients and families trying to choose the best hospital to meet their health care needs ," Pollack said in a
news release. "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."
A comprehensive list of Kentucky hospital CMS ratings can be found
here. Nationally , Medicare gave five stars to 102 hospitals , four to 934 hospitals , three stars to 1 ,770 and one star to 133. Many hospitals did not produce enough data in the measured areas to warrant a rating.
