U-M care gets top marks from national hospital rating system

University of Michigan Health’s Ann Arbor-area hospitals and health centers have received the top ranking of five stars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for quality, safety, timeliness and value.

This is the sixth consecutive time that U-M Health patient care has earned this highest-possible rating from the federal agency. The newly released ratings show that only 380 other hospitals nationwide achieved this distinction, out of 2,847 that were eligible.

The CMS rating uses 46 different types of data about the quality, safety, timeliness and value of care for adults, and ratings from patients themselves, based on surveys sent to them after they received care.

The new five-star rating applies to the hospitals and health centers on Michigan Medicine’s main medical campus, along with ambulatory care locations in southeastern Michigan. In addition, three hospitals in U-M Health’s statewide network also earned five stars.

Only 14 of the 149 hospitals in Michigan received a five-star rating. 

See the full listing for U-M Health's Ann Arbor-area care, including detailed data for many conditions, on the Hospital Compare site at https://michmed.org/Pn4ex. 

“Thanks to the hard work, skill, caring, teamwork and ingenuity of our entire team, we have once again earned a spot at the pinnacle of these national ratings,” said Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the U-M Medical School, CEO of Michigan Medicine and executive vice president of medical affairs for the University of Michigan.

Thousands of patients voiced their favorable opinions of U-M care in the surveys used for the new rating.

Compared with other hospitals nationally or in Michigan, patients treated at U-M Health’s Ann Arbor-area facilities were far more likely to rate the location where they received care a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, and to say they would recommend U-M Health to others.

Those same facilities also beat national and state averages on multiple measures of care, including death rates for heart failure and pneumonia patients, rates of potentially deadly healthcare-related infections, avoiding several types of unnecessary medical imaging, and more. 

“While we are always committed to continuous improvement, achieving a five-star ranking so many times in a row shows our dedication to achieving ever-better results for our patients,” said David Miller, M.D., M.P.H., president of U-M Health and executive vice dean for clinical affairs at the U-M Medical School. 

Miller also notes that CMS recognized the value for the dollar of U-M care. The rating site shows that the cost of care for people with Medicare coverage who came to U-M Health's Ann Arbor-area facilities was lower than the national index, as measured in “episodes” that include all costs from the start to the end of a hospital stay.

Three of the other hospitals in Michigan that received five stars are part of University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, which is part of U-M Health’s statewide network. They are Sparrow Carson, Sparrow Clinton and Sparrow Ionia hospitals.

In addition to the health care facilities that are part of U-M Health, U-M physicians lead a large proportion of inpatient care at two of the others that received five stars: the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and U-M Health affiliate Chelsea Hospital, operated through a joint venture with Trinity Health. 

In addition, University of Michigan Health-West received four stars; it is also part of U-M Health’s statewide network.

The new ratings are based on data through 2022; each hospital or health system with a CMS facility number is eligible to be rated separately. All of the U-M Health hospitals and health centers on the main medical campus, along with ambulatory care sites around southeastern Michigan, operate under one CMS facility number.

About Michigan Medicine: U-M Health is part of Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center, which advances health to serve Michigan and the world. We pursue excellence every day in our 11 hospitals and hundreds of clinics statewide, as well as educating the next generation of physicians, health professionals and scientists in our U-M Medical School.   

Michigan Medicine includes U-M Medical School and University of Michigan Health, which includes the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, University Hospital, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan Health-West, University of Michigan Health-Sparrow and the Rogel Cancer Center. The U-M Medical School is one of the nation's biomedical research powerhouses, with total research awards of more than $777 million. 

More information is available at www.michiganmedicine.org