DECATUR -- Decatur Memorial Hospital was recently awarded a Five-Star Rating – the highest possible score – by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as announced by Medicare.gov on Hospital Compare.
DMH is one of 20 hospitals in Illinois to be awarded a Five-Star rating. Only 9 percent of the 4,805 hospitals in the survey, (337 including DMH,) achieved a five-star rating. The national average is three out of five stars.
“I am extremely proud of our physicians, nurses, and staff, who work hard every day to provide high quality care for our community," said Timothy D. Stone Jr., President and CEO, Decatur Memorial Hospital. "We strive for excellence, and this achievement reflects DMH’s commitment to provide exceptional care close to home.”
The hospital rating system, publicly launched in 2016 by CMS, assigns hospitals one to five stars. The overall summary rating is based on a cumulative score from 57 measures across seven different areas, including mortality, readmission, safety of care, patient experience, efficient use of medical imaging, and timeliness and effectiveness of care. The full list, broken down by state, can be found on medicare.gov/hospitalcompare.
Hospitals have reported data on quality measures to CMS, a federal government entity, for well over a decade. In an effort to make this data more transparent and accessible to the general public, CMS summarized this data into a single star rating for each hospital. The agency publicizes these ratings on Hospital Compare, a consumer-oriented website that provides information on the quality of care patients receive at health care facilities.
The one to five-star scale was developed with public input and a Technical Expert Panel. The methodology for the ratings is continuously analyzed and enhanced through public feedback to ensure individuals are able to compare hospitals based on the information most pertinent to their choice of health care facilities.
Decatur Memorial Hospital is a 300 bed, not-for-profit, community hospital that has been providing medical care since 1916 for the residents of Central Illinois. Today, DMH has nearly 2,200 dedicated employees, 300 physicians, and is a designated Level II Trauma Center. DMH has been recognized six consecutive years as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospital from IBM Watson Health.
