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Medicare ranks hospitals for patient satisfaction

Ocala Star-Banner (FL) - 4/20/2015

April 18--Munroe Regional Medical Center and Ocala Health's two hospitals scored among some of the lowest ranking hospitals for patient satisfaction in a recent government health care survey.

Ocala Regional Medical Center/West Marion Community, which were graded together, and Munroe both received two stars out of a possible five in a rating system created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the government agency that oversees those health programs.

The new rating reflects patient feedback about their hospital stay and covers such issues as how attentive nurses were, how communicative doctors were and how clean hospital rooms and restrooms were during the patient's stay.

The CMS website is intended for "consumers to choose a hospital and understand the quality of care they deliver," according to an agency statement.

The site also allows consumers to compare the rankings of various hospitals in their areas.

The CMS star ranking is the latest data collection made available to the public in ranking hospitals. Earlier, the CMS also began making available hospital rankings based on other medical factors such as recovery and readmissions.

The data was collected on almost 3,500 Medicare-certified, acute-care hospitals.

CMS said in a press release that the data made available "builds on a larger effort a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to build a health care system that delivers better care, spends health care dollars more wisely, and results in healthier people."

Of the hospitals in the survey, 251 received five-star ratings, according to Modern Healthcare, an online publication that monitors healthcare issues.

Of the rest, 1,205 received four stars, 1,414 received three stars, 582 received two stars, and 101 received the lowest ranking: one star.

In eight of the 11 survey questions, Munroe received responses that ranked lower than average for Florida hospitals.

Ocala Regional Medical Center/West Marion received nine rankings below the state average.

Ocala Health issued this statement to the Star-Banner: "The star rating system being introduced by CMS is so new that we're still learning about the complex methodology that is being used to determine the ratings. However, quality of care and the patient experience has always been and will remain a top priority for Ocala Health."

Munroe did not provide a comment.

Other area hospitals that received two-star rankings included The Villages Regional Hospital, Citrus Memorial Hospital and Leesburg Regional Medical Center.

Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center received a single-star ranking. UF Health Shands Hospital received three stars.

"These star ratings also encourage hospitals and clinicians to strive to continuously improve the patient experience and quality of care delivered to all patients," CMS' Dr. Patrick Conway said in the agency news release.

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