Wisconsin Hospitals Score Among Nation’s Best In Federal Ratings

Hospital waiting area. (Public Domain)

Wisconsin ranks among the best in the country for high-quality hospitals based on federal data.

Of the 86 Wisconsin hospitals rated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 64 percent received a four- or five-star rating for overall hospital quality.

Compared to other states, it’s the fourth-highest percentage of top-rated hospitals, and the highest percentage reported among states with 50 or more hospitals, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

The quality ratings are based on metrics across five categories including re-admissions, patient experience and mortality.

Nadine Allen, WHA’s chief quality officer, said the ratings are meant to help patients make informed decisions about where they want to receive care. She said for many Wisconsin residents, a four- or five-star choice may not be far away.

“This is not just a couple of our larger systems or larger hospitals,” Allen said. “It’s not just in urban areas, but anywhere you go in Wisconsin, you can see the consistent message.”

Six of the 21 Wisconsin hospitals that received a perfect rating are critical access hospitals, or rural locations that are more than 35 miles from another hospital and have 25 or fewer inpatient beds. Another eight critical access hospitals received a four-star rating, out of the 34 total hospitals with that rating.

“There are some thoughts on critical access hospitals that smaller doesn’t always mean better,” said Kayla Mobley, director of quality services at Tomah Health, a critical access hospital in Monroe County that received a five-star rating this year.

But Mobley said she sees Tomah Health’s small size as a strength for providing a positive patient experience.

“We know that they are members of our community,” she said. “They’re not just a number when they come here. They’re very well our neighbors or our coworkers, and so we want to make sure that we are providing exceptional care for them.”

Tomah Health, a 25-bed hospital in rural Monroe County, is one of six critical access hospitals in Wisconsin that received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this year. Photo courtesy of Tomah Health

Mobley said comparing the quality of care across health systems of different sizes and with different services is complex, and the star rating system doesn’t always capture the nuances.

That’s in part because not every hospital receives a star rating. Allen said the federal agency requires data from a certain number and variety of Medicare and Medicaid patients.

In Wisconsin, two out of five hospitals in the state did not receive a star rating, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. That includes just over half of the state’s critical access hospitals.

This year was the first in several years that Tomah Health met the requirements for a rating, according to Mobley. She said it reaffirms what the health system has already seen through monitoring patient outcomes and feedback.

“It was nice to see the five-star recognition,” she said.

Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsin hospitals receive top federal quality ratings was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.