Wayne Memorial Awarded Four Stars

(Honesdale, May 5, 2021)… Wayne Memorial Hospital earned four out of five stars in the most recent federal government’s Overall Hospital Quality Star rating System. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) April 2021 report reflects experiences Medicare beneficiaries have with their health plan and healthcare system. The measures are grouped into five categories: Mortality, Safety of Care, Readmission, Patient Experience and Timely & Effective Care.

“We are pleased to have this confirmation that Wayne Memorial’s staff continues to step up to the plate of high-quality care day in, day out,” said WMH CEO David Hoff. “This rating should help our patients continue to feel more comfortable, safe and well taken care of at Wayne Memorial.

Hoff noted that “when consumers shop for healthcare, especially on the government’s  website that compares hospitals, the meaning of the stars jumps out. Four stars is very good, it’s a select group.”

Out of 3,355 hospitals, only 988 received a four-star rating; 455 received a five-star  rating. The majority, 1,018 came in at three stars.  According to the CMS hospital-compare website, Find Healthcare Providers: Compare Care Near You | Medicare, Wayne Memorial received the highest number of stars in its service area of Wayne, Pike,  Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties.

The Star ratings system counts numerous quality measures within each category. For example, under Patient Experience, ratings are based on patient surveys with questions such as how well doctors and nurses communicated with you or how well staff explained your medicines. Under Timely & Effective Care, hospitals submit data on areas such as percentage of healthcare workers who received an influenza vaccine or percentage of patients who left the Emergency Department before being seen. Some of these measures are used in the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, which directly affects how hospitals are reimbursed by the federal government.

For more information, visit Overall hospital quality star rating | Provider Data Catalog (cms.gov).