Worst Hospitals in SPRINGFIELD, MA
Updated as of April 01, 2024
How is the Hospital Quality Star Rating Developed?
The Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating for the hospitals in SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts summarizes a variety of measures across 5 areas of quality into a single star rating for each hospital. Once reporting thresholds are met, a hospital’s Overall Star Rating is calculated using only those measures for which data are available. Hospitals report data to The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") through the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program, Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) Program, Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program, and Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program. Overall Star Ratings aren’t calculated for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) or Department of Defense (DoD) hospitals.
Most hospitals will have an Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating of 3.
The methodology used to calculate Overall Star Ratings involves multiple steps to select, standardize, and calculate scores based on Care Compare measures. Overall Star Ratings are created using this seven-step process:
- Selection and standardization of measures for inclusion in the Overall Star Rating
- Assignment of measures to groups
- Calculation and standardization of measure group scores
- Calculation of hospital summary scores as a weighted average of available group scores
- Application of minimum thresholds for receiving an Overall Star Rating
- Assignment of hospitals to peer groups based on their number of measure groups (3, 4, or 5)
- Application of clustering algorithm to categorize summary scores into star ratings
For each hospital, a hospital summary score is calculated by taking the weighted average of the hospital’s scores for each measure group. The table below shows the weight applied to each measure group. The hospital summary score is then used to assign hospitals to star ratings, using k-means clustering within each peer group.
Measure group | Weight used in calculation |
---|---|
Mortality | 22% |
Safety | 22% |
Readmission | 22% |
Patient Experience | 22% |
Timely & Effective Care | 12% |
Note that these percentage weights are out of 100%. If a hospital has no measures in a certain measure group, the weighted percentage is redistributed proportionally to the other measure groups. For example, if a hospital had no measures in the Timely & Effective Care category, the 12% weight would be redistributed evenly as 25% for each of the Mortality, Safety of Care, Readmission and Patient Experience groups.
National distribution of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating The following table shows the national distribution of the Overall Star Rating based on July 2022 results.
Overall rating | Number of hospitals / Percentage |
---|---|
1 star | 198 (6.34%) |
2 stars | 702 (22.49%) |
3 stars | 895 (28.68%) |
4 stars | 895 (28.68%) |
5 stars | 431 (13.81%) |
N/A | 1,368 (30.47%) |
Additional detailed on the method for calculating the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating from this document.