Hospital Guides
Download the CMS hospital extracts cited on this page: plainhospital-hospital-ratings.csv and plainhospital-state-summary.csv (CMS public records · CC0).
These guides explain the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data behind Medicare-certified hospitals, refreshed March 2026, see our methodology.
What these guides cover
CMS rates 3,182 of 5,432 Medicare-certified hospitals on a 1-5 star scale (national average 3.2). Only 12% reach five stars, so the guides below unpack what the composite means and when a procedure-specific measure beats the headline.
- 5,432
- hospitals in the CMS catalog
- 3.2 / 5
- national average star rating
- 12%
- reach five stars
- 7
- guides in this hub
Understand hospital quality data and make informed healthcare decisions. These guides walk through how CMS Hospital Compare star ratings are calculated, what patient experience, safety, readmission, and mortality measures actually reveal, and how to use quality data for over 5,400 hospitals to evaluate care before you need it.
Understanding Hospital Star Ratings
How CMS calculates hospital star ratings, what the stars measure, and why a 5-star hospital isn't always the best choice for your needs.
Hospital Quality Measures Explained
What patient experience, safety indicators, readmission rates, and mortality measures actually tell you about hospital quality.
How to Choose a Hospital with Data
A practical guide to using CMS quality data to evaluate hospitals for planned procedures, emergency care, and specialized treatment.
What Hospital Star Ratings Really Mean
CMS methodology deep dive: how the five categories are weighted, why large academic hospitals often score lower, and how to interpret stars correctly.
Choosing Between Hospitals
Which quality metrics matter most for hospital selection, when to travel for care, and how to use infection rates as a practical decision filter.
Understanding FDA Device Reports
What the FDA MAUDE database reveals about medical device safety, how to interpret report counts, and why raw numbers can be misleading.
Patient Experience Scores Explained
What HCAHPS survey scores measure, how to interpret patient experience data, and what the scores cannot tell you about clinical quality.
Methodology
Every guide on PlainHospital is grounded in primary sources from federal healthcare agencies. Hospital quality measures, including the overall star rating system, mortality and readmission outcomes, and patient-safety indicators come directly from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare program. Patient experience scores draw on the standardized HCAHPS survey administered to discharged inpatients, and healthcare-associated infection data flows from the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network reporting system that tracks CLABSI, CAUTI, MRSA, and C. difficile rates across thousands of facilities.
For medical device safety, our guides reference the FDA's MAUDE adverse-event database via the public openFDA application programming interface. Every figure on every page is presented as published by the originating federal agency, we do not reweight, smooth, or editorialize the underlying numbers. Each detail page shows the exact program source, the data-release period, and the number of facilities or events that contributed to the displayed metric so a reader can audit the calculation against the agency's own publication.
For the full definitions, weights, sample-size cutoffs, and known limitations that apply to star ratings, mortality measures, readmission rates, and patient-experience scores, read our full methodology.