Sixty-seven percent of Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals included in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings received either 4 or 5 stars, compared to only 41 percent of non-VA hospitals.
VA operates 152 facilities across the country and this is the first time its hospitals were included in the CMS Star Ratings.
The CMS uses 5 categories — mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care — to award a quality rating for each hospital. Based on the criteria, 114 VA facilities received a CMS star rating and 23 were not rated. The more stars out of 5, the better a hospital performed on the available quality measures.
VA officials said the ratings are the result of nearly five years of work it has undertaken to become a “high-reliability organization.”
"We're pleased to see that these CMS star ratings validate the impact of some of that work, but it also only energizes us further to make sure that we are providing the safest and most effective care to veterans," said VA’s Under Secretary for Health for Quality and Patient Safety, Gerard Cox during a July 25 call with reporters.
Those findings are the latest in a series of recent evaluations showing the effectiveness of VA health care compared to non-VA health care. VA hospitals outperformed non-VA hospitals on all 10 core patient satisfaction metrics in the recently released Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Star Ratings.
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“Whenever a veteran entrusts us with their care, they deserve to know that they’re getting the very best,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough in a statement. “That’s what we strive for in every hospital across the nation, and we will never settle for anything less.”
A recent systemic review of more than 40 peer-reviewed studies also found that VA health care is consistently as good as — or better than — non-VA health care.
The Star Ratings are posted on Care Compare and were based on data collected between July 2018 and March 2022.
“Our job at VA is to deliver the best possible care to every Veteran who walks through our doors,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal.
“While we’re very proud of these findings, there is still work to do. We will study these results, learn from them, and continue to improve until we’re delivering world-class care to every veteran, every time.”
To view the star ratings for your local VA or non-VA hospital, visit here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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