The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that Sheridan Memorial Hospital (SMH) has earned an Overall 5-Star rating. This comes only two years after SMH garnered overall 4-Star status and places SMH as one of only two 5-star hospitals in Wyoming.
“Attaining 5-Star status puts us in the top 13.56 percent of hospitals nationwide and shows the efforts we are putting into improving our processes are working,” said Barb Hespen, Chief Nursing Officer. “It really is a testament to the hard work and dedication put in by our physicians and staff every day.”
Since the start of the star rating system in 2015, CMS collects and compiles data from hospitals and uses that information to assign ratings from 1-5 stars. Much of the data comes from surveys of actual patients assessing their specific experience. CMS uses the rating system to measure multiple facets of over 4,000 hospitals across the country to drive systematic improvements in care and safety for patients. The specific performance indicators in the CMS Star Rating system include measurements related to five areas: Mortality, Safety of Care, Re-Admission Rate, Patient Experience and Timely and Effective Care. The ratings are published on the CMS Care Compare website.
Hespen added that improvement in readmission rates and patient length of stay was a major factor in earning a 5-Star rating.
“Our number of 30-day readmissions continued to be lower than the national average; in addition to the low number of excess days patients spent in acute care,” Hespen said.
In a memo to SMH physicians and staff members, CEO Mike McCafferty stated, “Thank you all for your commitment to our mission and your dedication to strive for perfection in all that we do. The road to excellence is a journey that requires all of our team members to embrace our principles and standards of behavior to deliver the best possible experience and value to our patients. Let’s continue to support one another to sustain this level of excellence for years to come.”