Which US states have the best-rated hospitals?

CMS gives every hospital an overall star rating from one to five. Aggregating the ratings by state shows where the share of four- and five-star hospitals is highest — and the differences are larger than the state ranking by average rating suggests. 3,056 rated hospitals5,114 hospitals

Key findings

• Utah leads with 79% of its rated hospitals at four stars or better, followed by Colorado (73%) and Wisconsin (64%).
• At the other end, Mississippi has 13% of rated hospitals at four stars or better.
• Across the country, 19.3% of rated hospitals are in states where at least half the rated hospitals are four-star or better.

States ranked by share of four- and five-star hospitals

States with fewer than 20 rated hospitals are excluded from the ranking.

How to read this

The share of top-rated hospitals and the average rating are different measures: a state where most hospitals are unrated can post a flattering average from a small rated set. That is why the table shows both the number of rated hospitals and the percentage at four stars or better.

Method

Ratings are the CMS overall hospital star ratings from Care Compare, aggregated by the hospital state field. Unrated hospitals (including those with too few measures) are counted in the hospital total but excluded from the averages. Data: CMS Provider Data Catalog, public domain.