Report cards are out for the nation’s hospitals, and Sarasota Memorial Hospital received the highest 5-star rating for the fourth consecutive rating period. Less than 10 percent of U.S. hospitals earned the federal government’s highest marks in 2017, according to the American Hospital Association. The updated results are slated to be posted this month on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Since 2016, the federal agency has shared star ratings to make it easier for people to compare how well their community hospitals perform on a range of inpatient and outpatient quality indicators. Hospital Compare evaluates more than 50 quality measures and then distills them into an overall star rating, giving the most weight to factors including patient safety, patient experience, the rates of unnecessary patient readmissions and rates of unexpected patient deaths. Hospitals receive ratings of one to five stars – with five stars being the highest score. The results are slated to be posted on the Hospital Compare website this week. For more information, visit below.

Hospital Compare