VA St. Louis Health Care System rated 5 out of 5 Stars in independent, nationwide health care quality review

In 2023, VA St. Louis scored 4 stars out of a possible 5-Star Rating System, highlighting VA St. Louis’ continuous focus on the health and safety of our Veteran population. VA St. Louis has a strong commitment to becoming a High Reliability Organization with a priority of zero harm for our Veterans. One aspect of that journey is the team’s dedication to continuous process improvement. Between the end of 2019-2023 VA St. Louis completed 54 process-improvement projects across both campuses.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our wonderful team,” said Candace Ifabiyi, VA St. Louis Health Care System CEO. “We’ve been on a journey to improve patient outcomes while providing compassionate care since I arrived in January 2023. These efforts have resulted in more than 50 percent of our metrics having meaningful improvements in quality, which is a direct reflection of the excellent care our Veterans receive at VA St. Louis, and it validates our elevation to a 5-star facility.”

 VA St. Louis will continue efforts to improve the patient experience to ensure that Veterans receive excellent care with an exceptional experience. 

“It’s our commitment that every eligible Veteran not only can choose VA health care, but when they do, that they get the very best and safest care possible,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D. “For the second year in a row, VA care has been shown to be some of the best in the Nation. We are dedicated to continuously improving as we strive towards always providing the highest quality of care to Veterans.” “

We want to be the healthcare provider of choice for our Veterans and we’re happy to share that in the past year, we’ve grown by more than 8 percent in new enrollees,” said Ifabiyi. “We believe Veterans understand that we provide the best comprehensive care for them.”

Nationally, VA hospitals continue to outperform non-VA hospitals on both CMS’ Overall Star Rating and their quarterly patient satisfaction survey:

• Patient Satisfaction Survey: VA outperformed non-VA hospitals in the most recent CMS Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems star ratings, with 79-percent of VA facilities receiving a summary star rating of 4 or 5 stars compared to 40-percent of non-VA hospitals. This represents the ninth consecutive quarter in which VA facilities have outperformed non VA counterparts.

• Hospital Quality Ratings: In this year’s CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings, more than 58 percent of VA hospitals included received 4- or 5-star ratings compared to 40 percent of non-VA hospitals. This is only the second year VA hospitals have been included in this review, and VA has outperformed non-VA health care in both years.

  These findings come at a time when Veteran trust in VA outpatient care has reached an all-time record high of 92 percent, based on a survey of more than 440,000 Veterans. Additionally, these findings are consistent with a recent systematic review that found that VA health care is consistently as good as — or better than — non-VA health care.

  Both CMS ratings aim to improve patients’ ability to make informed decisions about where they receive care. CMS awards Overall Star Ratings to hospitals based on five categories: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care. CMS’ HCAHPS summary star ratings combine information across ten measures of patient experience, including staff communication and responsiveness, hospital environment, willingness to recommend the hospital, and overall hospital rating. This year’s Overall Star Ratings are based on data collected between July 2019 and March 2023, and this quarter’s HCAHPS star ratings are based on data collected between October 2022 and September 2023.

  VA is committed to delivering the timely, world-class health care Veterans deserve and will stop at nothing less. The overall rating — as well as ratings on specific quality and satisfaction measures — of your local VA hospital can be found via CMS’ Care Compare tool.

  For more information or interview requests with Ms. Candace Ifabiyi, CEO, please contact Cindy Dorfner via email at Cynthia.Dorfner@va.gov by phone at (314) 482-0292.