NEWTON, Kan., (October 26, 2015) – Newton Medical Center (NMC) has been awarded a four-star rating by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). NMC is among only 37% of Medicare-certified acute-care hospitals nationwide to receive a four or five-star rating.
“For decades our dedicated employees, medical staff and volunteers have regarded the nature of our work as simply doing everything in our power to care for friends and neighbors. The satisfaction scores reflect our staff’s devotion to giving family-friendly care,” says Val Gleason, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Clinical Integration Officer, Newton Medical Center. “We are proud of our staff and pleased that our patients are so happy about their hospital experiences.”
CMS released its first five-star ratings for hospitals in April and then updated ratings in July and again this month. These ratings can be found on CMS’ Hospital Compare website, which provides consumers an online tool to compare up to three hospitals at once.
The hospital star rating is based off of the 11 publicly reported measures in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. HCAHPS has been in use since 2006 to measure patients’ perspectives of hospital care, and includes topics like nurse and doctor communication, responsiveness of hospital staff, and cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment.
The updated ratings, released earlier this month, are based on HCAHPS survey results for the reporting period from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2014. According to CMS, they expect to update these rankings every quarter.
