Michigan Medicine received the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) highest possible quality designation in the agency’s most recent release of its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings.

The CMS star ratings, publicly available on the Hospital Compare website, provide patients and families with information about the quality of hospitals and care facilities in their area.

Of 136 hospitals evaluated in Michigan, only 11 received the prestigious five-star ranking. St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea, a joint venture between University of Michigan Health and Saint Joseph Mercy Health, joins Michigan Medicine on the list of five-star hospitals.

“This designation can be particularly hard to achieve for academic medical centers who serve a higher number of complex patients with chronic illnesses,” points out Jeffrey Desmond, M.D., chief medical officer of Michigan Medicine. “Our faculty and staff are relentless in their efforts to continuously improve quality – holding patient safety as our highest priority.”

The CMS’s star ratings system evaluates hospitals on up to 57 quality measures representing seven key domains of healthcare performance: 

• Mortality
• Safety of care
• Readmission
• Patient experience
• Effectiveness of care
• Timeliness of care
• Efficient use of medical imaging

Michigan Medicine outperformed the national average in mortality, safety of care, patient experience and efficient use of medical imaging.  The hospital’s 30-day mortality rate is among the best in the nation, and ongoing system-wide improvement efforts have reduced 30-day readmission rates and hospital-acquired infections.

“We see this recognition as a good indicator that the work we are doing for our patients is paying off, but it’s a process that doesn’t end here,” says Desmond. “Our faculty and staff will keep up our efforts to continuously improve the care we provide.”

The CMS five-star designation is among many quality distinctions Michigan Medicine has celebrated this past year, including being ranked in the top five best hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and named among the top 100 hospitals in the world by Newsweek Magazine. In addition, the hospital achieved Magnet status in February 2017 – the highest institutional honor awarded for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.