Madison VA Receives Five Stars CMS Quality Ratings
PRESS RELEASE
July 26, 2023
Madison , WI — William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and Clinics announced that it received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This is the first time CMS has included VA facilities in their annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings.
The CMS uses five 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 five), 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 four or five 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.
“This is a tremendous honor and speaks to the work ethic and expertise our team brings to our hospital and clinics,” said Alicia Miller, interim director at the Madison VA. “It is such an honor to show up every day and serve our Veterans. The CMS Overall Star Ratings reflects our continuous effort to sustain a high standard of care.”
“Our job at VA is to deliver the best possible care to every Veteran who walks through our doors,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal. “While we’re very proud of these findings, there is still work to do. We will study these results, learn from them, and continue to improve until we’re delivering world-class care to every Veteran, every time."
The William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and Clinics serve 95,000 Veterans in 19 counties with clinics in Madison, Beaver Dam, Baraboo and Janesville, WI, and Freeport and Rockford, IL. The Madison VA Hospital provides 105 acute medical, surgical, neurological, cancer, transplant and psychiatric care beds, as well as a 14-bed Community Living Center. For additional information, visit our website, Facebook or newsletters.