Washington County Hospital and Clinics’ (WCHC) focus on providing more than you expect from healthcare has resulted in the lofty achievement of a 4-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for this past year. Out of 82 critical access hospitals in Iowa, WCHC was 1 of 10 that earned a 4-star rating.

“We strive every day to provide patients with safe, high quality and positive experiences,” stated Todd Patterson, CEO of WCHC. “This rating directly reflects the commitment and dedication of our healthcare workers to our patients.”

CMS released its Hospital Overall Quality Star Ratings on July 28th, rating hospitals for the time period January 1 – December 31, 2021. Hospitals and healthcare systems are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the highest and about 14 percent of hospitals earned that top mark this year.

The approach used to determine the CMS star ratings is based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Surveys provide consumers an opportunity to evaluate a health system on over 50 performance measures including readmission rates, patient experience, safety and quality of care. These surveys are administered to a random sample of patients between 48 hours – 6 weeks after their services were received.