CT hospital quality improves in new CMS star ratings
Connecticut hospitals improved their overall quality performance this year, according to Medicare.gov Compare’s 2021 update. Connecticut hospitals averaged 3.0 stars out of five last year, moving to 3.5 in this year’s ranking. While 3.5 stars is still too low, especially given the cost of healthcare in Connecticut, things are moving in a better direction.
Last year, Massachusetts and Rhode Island hospitals significantly out-performed Connecticut’s, but we are catching up.
Connecticut hospitals now perform slightly better than the US average.
In 2019 four Connecticut hospitals earned only one star, last year only two had one star, and this year all our state’s hospitals earned at least 2 stars. In 2019 no Connecticut hospital earned the highest level of 5 stars and last year only one did. But four Connecticut hospitals earned 5 stars this year – Day Kimball, Greenwich, Sharon, and Stamford hospitals.
Since 2019, Stamford Hospital’s quality improved the most moving from 2 to 5 stars, while Rockville General Hospital fell the most moving from 4 to 2 stars.
The ranking uses measures of mortality, patient safety, readmissions, patient experience of care, and timely and effective care to assess the overall quality of care at hospitals, and other providers. It’s important to note that CMS changed the methodology for calculating overall quality scores for this year.