Jasper (Aug. 8, 2023) – Piedmont Mountainside Hospital is one of just nine Georgia hospitals to receive an overall five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for excellence in quality.

The five-star designation was awarded to 483 hospitals across the country, a little more than 10 percent of all U.S. hospitals. CMS assigns its star ratings annually to hospitals nationwide. Hospital scores can be found by ZIP code here.

“We are delighted to learn that Piedmont Mountainside has received the CMS five-star designation,” said Denise Ray, CEO of Piedmont Mountainside. “The designation affirms our total commitment to patient safety, quality care, outcomes and patient experience and is the result of great teamwork. Our community can feel safe and secure when choosing Piedmont Mountainside for health care.”

A multiple-step methodology was used to rank hospitals based on specific metrics within five broad categories:

• Mortality, which looks at death rates for various illnesses and conditions.
• Safety of Care, a measure of several care-related issues such as infections and complications after surgery.
• Readmission, which examines the rate of hospital readmission after specific surgical procedures or illnesses.
• Patient Experience, a metric that includes communication from doctors and nurses, room cleanliness, clear discharge instructions and hospital recommendations from patients.
• Timely and Effective Care, which includes several metrics such as the percentage of healthcare workers who took the flu and COVID-19 vaccines, patients who left the emergency department before being seen, and patients who arrives with stroke symptoms who received timely brain scan results.

According to Medicare.gov, the star ratings can give the public information and help them compare hospitals locally and nationwide, but it says people “should consider a variety of factors when choosing a hospital, like physician guidance about your care plan.”

The website suggests additionally looking at other aspects of hospital quality such as rates of infection and complications, and patients’ experience based on survey results.