Prime Healthcare Hospitals Achieve Five-Star CMS Ratings

Federal Agency Rates Prime Hospitals in Top Nine Percent Nationally

ONTARIO, Calif., February 7, 2020 – Eight Prime Healthcare hospitals have received the highest overall hospital rating given by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), placing them among the top nine percent of hospitals nationwide. Hospitals earning this top rating show an “overall rating” of five-stars on CMS’ Hospital Compare tool.

“Our patient centric model allows Prime Healthcare to successfully deliver high quality and compassionate care,” said Sunny Bhatia, MD, Prime Healthcare Corporate Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer, Region I. “That so many Prime Healthcare hospitals have earned top scores in CMS ratings and continue to show improvement over time reflects our unwavering commitment to clinical quality and value-based care,” Dr. Bhatia said.

Prime Healthcare’s CMS five-star recipients are: Alvarado Hospital Medical Center (San Diego, CA), Harlingen Medical Center (Harlingen, TX), Lake Huron Medical Center (Port Huron, MI), Pampa Regional Medical Center (Pampa, TX), Providence Medical Center (Kansas City, KS), Saint Clare’s Denville Hospital (Denville, NJ), Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center (Reno, NV), and St. Joseph Medical Center (Kansas City, MO).

The overall hospital rating is based on data publicly reported on CMS’ Hospital Compare tool (medicare.gov/hospitalcompare). It reflects hospital performance on up to 51 measures across seven aspects of quality, including patient experience and effectiveness of care.

“Everything we do is about empowering patients, and today CMS took a major step that empowers those receiving care in America’s hospitals,” said Seema Verma, CMS Administrator in an official blog post. “This announcement puts the most up-to-date hospital quality information at patients’ and their families’ fingertips so they can make the healthcare choices that are right for them.”

The hospital rating shows how well each hospital performed on average compared to other hospitals in the U.S. in treating common conditions such as heart attack or pneumonia. Participating hospitals reported data to CMS, the federal agency that runs the Medicare program through the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program. Those hospitals were given an overall rating ranging from one to five stars, with five as the highest, according to the report.

Prime Healthcare is one of the nation’s premier hospital systems recognized for its quality and patient safety initiatives and performance. Prime Healthcare was also recently acknowledged when five of its California hospitals received awards for excellence in patient safety and maternity care and four others earned honor roll status by Cal Hospital Compare. Twenty Prime Healthcare hospitals also recently earned “A” Hospital Safety Grades and four were named Top Hospitals nationally by Leapfrog group. In late 2019, Prime Healthcare also received a record 312 recognitions in Healthgrades’ 2020 ratings.

CMS issued a blog post on January 29 to announce the updated Hospital Compare data and ratings and posted an announcement and FAQs about the update.