Every quality figure on this site is a published federal measurement, not our opinion and not a user review. This page explains exactly what each number means, how old it is, and where it falls short.
CMS data published July 22, 2026Source: CMS Provider Data CatalogChecked for updates daily
Hospitals listed6,349across all 50 states
With ER wait time4,47370% of hospitals listed
With star rating3,51655% of hospitals listed
CMS releaseJul 2026Published July 22, 2026
Coverage
We list 6,349 hospitals across all 50 states.
Of those, 4,473 have a published emergency
department wait time, 3,516 have a CMS
overall star rating, and 4,301 report how many
patients left before being seen. The CMS data on this site was published
July 22, 2026.
No figure is not a bad figure. Not every hospital reports every measure.
A hospital with no figure is not a hospital performing badly — it usually means too few
cases to report, or no emergency department at all. We say so on the page rather than leaving a blank.
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What each number means
Four measures appear on hospital, city and state pages. Each one is published by CMS; we do not adjust or score them.
The median time patients spent in the emergency department before leaving, for
patients who were treated and discharged rather than admitted. Three things worth
understanding about it:
It is a median across a full year, not a live queue. A hospital showing three hours will still have quiet Tuesday mornings and six-hour Saturday nights.
It covers discharged patients only. Patients admitted to the hospital from the emergency department are measured separately, and their waits are typically longer.
Longer is not automatically worse. Busy trauma centres treat sicker, more complex patients. Compare a hospital to others of similar size and role, which is why we show the state average alongside it.
The percentage of emergency department patients who left without being evaluated
by a clinician. It is a useful companion to the wait time: a moderate wait with a
high walkout rate often says more about the experience than either number alone.
CMS’s one-to-five star summary, combining dozens of measures across mortality,
safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care.
It is a blunt instrument by design. A hospital must report enough measures to receive one at all, which is why many smaller and specialty hospitals have no star rating here.
Same stars, different strengths. Two hospitals with the same number of stars can differ substantially on the measure you personally care about.
CMS groups emergency departments into low, medium, high and very high annual volume
bands. Volume is context: it tells you whether a wait time reflects a small rural
department or a major urban one.
A random sample of adult patients is surveyed after discharge about nurse and doctor
communication, explanations about medicines, discharge information, cleanliness, quiet
at night, an overall 0–10 rating and whether they would recommend the hospital.
CMS adjusts results for patient mix and survey method and gives star ratings only to
hospitals with at least 100 completed surveys. See patient ratings by state.
Six infections: central line bloodstream infections, catheter urinary tract infections,
surgical site infections after colon surgery and abdominal hysterectomy, MRSA and C. diff.
Each compares the infections a hospital reported with the number predicted for a hospital
like it (the standardized infection ratio). CMS labels a hospital better or worse only when
the difference is statistically significant. State figures on
hospital safety by state pool every reporting hospital's
observed and predicted infections; that pooling is our analysis.
PSI 90 combines ten patient safety indicators (falls with fractures, bed sores,
collapsed lungs, blood clots and other problems after surgery). Death rates are the
share of Medicare patients treated for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, stroke,
COPD or bypass surgery who died within 30 days, risk-adjusted. Where CMS publishes no
better/worse comparison, we show the rate beside the national rate and say so.
Readmission rates are the share of Medicare patients admitted again to any acute-care
hospital within 30 days, for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, COPD, bypass surgery,
hip or knee replacement and all conditions combined. Return-day measures count days spent
back in the ER, under observation or readmitted, compared with what was expected. The
Readmissions Reduction Program's excess readmission ratio is shown as published; a ratio
above 1.00 means more readmissions than expected.
Sepsis treatment, stroke brain scans, ER times, flu vaccination of staff, risky opioid
prescribing at discharge and similar process measures. CMS publishes no better/worse
verdict for these, so we show the hospital's figure beside the national figure (or, where
CMS publishes none, the median of all hospitals it reports). Maternity measures (low-risk
C-sections and severe delivery complications) come from CMS's Maternal Health file and are
shown the same way.
Medicare spending and payment programs
CMS MSPB-1, HAC Reduction, Value-Based Purchasing
What it is
Spending per patient and Medicare penalties or bonuses
Medicare spending per beneficiary compares what Medicare spent around a hospital stay
(3 days before to 30 days after) with the national median; 1.00 equals the median. The
Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program cuts payments by 1% for the worst-scoring
quarter of hospitals. The Value-Based Purchasing Program adjusts payments based on a total
performance score out of 100. Critical access, children's and some specialty hospitals are
not part of these programs.
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Where it comes from
Hospital General InformationCMS dataset xubh-q36uIdentity, address, ownership, hospital type, emergency services, star rating.
Timely and Effective Care – HospitalCMS dataset yv7e-xc69Emergency department timing, left before being seen, ED volume, sepsis, stroke, vaccination and other process measures, with national figures (isrn-hqyy).
Patient survey (HCAHPS) – HospitalCMS dataset dgck-syfzPatient star ratings and survey answers, with national (99ue-w85f) and state (84jm-wiui) benchmarks.
Complications and Deaths – HospitalCMS dataset ynj2-r87730-day death rates, PSI 90 and other patient safety indicators, with national rates (qqw3-t4ie).
Unplanned Hospital Visits – HospitalCMS dataset 632h-zaca30-day readmissions, return days and return visits after outpatient procedures, with national rates (cvcs-xecj).
Maternal Health – HospitalCMS dataset nrdb-3fcyLow-risk C-sections, severe obstetric complications and the maternity safety structural measure.
All of these datasets are United States federal government public domain data, refreshed by CMS
on a quarterly cycle.
How we keep it current
An automated job keeps every figure tied to a specific CMS publication, so a number on this site can always be traced back to its source release.
We check CMS every day.Each morning the site asks CMS whether any of these datasets has a new release.
We import when CMS publishes.New releases typically arrive quarterly. When one does, we re-import it; on days with no new release, nothing changes.
We validate before anything changes.If a download looks incomplete, the import stops and the site keeps the previous release.
Every changed value is logged.We record what changed, hospital by hospital, so any figure can be traced to the release it came from.
How hospitals are matched
Each hospital is keyed to its CMS Certification Number (CCN), the
six-character identifier Medicare uses. When a hospital converts to Critical Access or
Rural Emergency status it is issued a new CCN; we follow the change and keep the page,
rather than creating a duplicate.
What this site is not
Not affiliated with CMSor with any hospital listed here.
Not live operational dataNothing here reflects how busy an emergency department is right now.
Not medical adviceIf you are having a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. Do not use a wait time on this page to decide where to go in an emergency.
Corrections
If a figure here is wrong, it is either wrong in the federal source or we have
mismatched a record. Both are worth knowing about — tell us which hospital
and what is wrong, and we will trace it back to the source release.
No. Each wait time is CMS measure OP_18b, a median across a full year for patients who were treated and discharged. Nothing on this site reflects how busy an emergency department is right now. If you are having a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
Why do some hospitals have no star rating or wait time?
Not every hospital reports every measure. A hospital must report enough measures to receive a CMS star rating at all, so many smaller and specialty hospitals have none, and a missing wait time usually means too few cases to report or no emergency department. A missing figure is not a sign of poor performance.
How often is the data updated?
CMS refreshes these datasets on a quarterly cycle. We check CMS every day and import a new release when it is published, recording every value that changes. The CMS data currently on this site was published July 22, 2026.
Is this site affiliated with CMS?
No. This site is not affiliated with CMS or with any hospital listed. The figures are United States federal government public domain data from the CMS Provider Data Catalog.
What should I do if a figure looks wrong?
Tell us which hospital and what is wrong using the report form. A wrong figure is either wrong in the federal source or a mismatched record, and we will trace it back to the source release.
