GBMC Achieves the Highest Score from CMS

I am proud to announce that GBMC has earned a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) Hospital Compare Program. We are one of eight hospitals in the state and one of only 407 in the nation to achieve the highest score!

CMS is a federal agency that pays for the care of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. CMS sets conditions of participation and incentivizes healthcare providers to continually improve the value of care through optimizing health outcomes and the care experience. This needs to be done while also reducing cost. The CMS Hospital Compare website reports quality measures for more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide.

CMS created the star-rating system to give patients the tools they need to find the organizations that will provide the highest value to them. The Five-Star Quality Rating System uses scores for seven groups of measures in its calculation. The seven groups are:
1. Mortality
2. Safety of Care
3. Readmission
4. Patient Experience
5. Effectiveness of Care
6. Timeliness of Care
7. Efficient Use of Medical Imaging

A hospital summary score is calculated by taking the weighted average of these group scores, and the overall hospital rating is calculated using the hospital summary score. For more information about how hospitals are scored, click here.

Much has been said about the “age of consumerism in healthcare” and how patients are using data to decide where to receive their care — I wish it were true. GBMC has been putting its quality and safety data on our public facing website (https://www.gbmc.org/quality) for eight years, but we have not seen much evidence that patients are using it to make decisions. This can also be said about Hospital Compare.

One of the reasons for this is that the data metrics can be confusing to the average person. They are complicated and often not well explained. We owe it to those we serve to make this information as accessible as possible. What ideas do you have to make it easier for patients and their families to compare providers and make informed decisions?

I hope that many members of the community see that we have achieved this distinction and explore all that GBMC has to offer!

Congratulations!!!
We recently learned that GBMC is the first hospital in the state to earn the Joint Commission Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care! This certification means that patients can expect integrated, coordinated, patient-centered care through their pregnancy and childbirth. Throughout its history, GBMC has been known to be one of the best places in the area to have a baby and this certification is further evidence of our excellence. Let me thank and congratulate Victor Khouzami, MD, Chair of Obstetrics, Lisa Groff, DNP, RN, Director of Women and Children’s Services, and their entire team for this fabulous achievement.