Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks received a 5-star rating from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The CMS uses 5 categories - mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care – to award a quality rating for each hospital. The more stars (out of 5), the better a hospital performed on the available quality measures.

Overall, 67% of VA hospitals included in the CMS annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings received either 4 or 5 stars, compared to only 41% of non-VA hospitals. These findings are the latest in a series of recent evaluations showing the effectiveness of VA health care compared to non-VA health care. VA hospitals outperformed non-VA hospitals on all 10 core patient satisfaction metrics in the recent Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Star Ratings, and a recent systematic review of more than 40 peer-reviewed studies found that VA health care is consistently as good as — or better than — non-VA health care.      

“The VA Healthcare System of the Ozarks strives to be the healthcare destination of choice for our Veterans. We take great pride in fulfilling our noble mission to provide the best care to our Veterans.” said VHSO Medical Center Director, Dr. George Velez, DHA, MBA, FACHE          

ABOUT THE VETERANS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM OF the OZARKS:

The Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks consists of one Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facility located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and seven community based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) in Fort Smith, Harrison, and Ozark, Arkansas; Branson, Springfield, and Joplin, Missouri; and Jay, Oklahoma.  Clinics are VA staff, except for Harrison, Arkansas, which is contract staff. These seven CBOCs serve Veterans in north and west Arkansas, southwest Missouri, and east Oklahoma.  VHSO is a 78-bed acute care facility classified as a Level 2 on the VA Complexity Model. Comprehensive healthcare is provided through primary and secondary care in areas of medicine, surgery, mental health, physical therapy, neurology, audiology and speech pathology, dentistry, ophthalmology, oncology, and women's health. Referrals are made to tertiary care facilities.  VHSO is part of the South-Central VA Health Care Network (VISN 16), which includes facilities in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida. To learn more about VHSO visit:

VA Fayetteville Arkansas Health Care | Veterans Affairs.

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