SafeHospitals USA is an independent digital resource dedicated to helping American patients access and understand hospital safety data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). We do not accept advertising from hospitals, health systems, pharmaceutical companies, or insurance carriers. Our scores are calculated from public CMS datasets and are not influenced by any hospital's marketing budget.
Our Mission
When you or a family member faces a hospital admission, you deserve access to objective quality information — not marketing claims, not star ratings invented by a hospital's own PR department, but the same data the federal government uses to evaluate Medicare-certified facilities. That's what we publish.
Our Scoring Methodology
Every SafeHospitals USA Safety Score is calculated from the annual CMS Hospital Compare dataset using a weighted composite of five clinical performance domains:
- Hospital-Acquired Infection rates (HAI) — 30% weight. Six infection types tracked via CDC's NHSN: CLABSI, CAUTI, SSI (colon and abdominal hysterectomy), C. difficile, and MRSA bloodstream infections. Scored against Standardized Infection Ratios.
- Patient Safety Indicator measures — 25% weight. CMS-defined safety events including blood clots, falls, pressure ulcers, and complications from procedures.
- 30-day Mortality outcomes — 20% weight. Risk-adjusted mortality rates for six conditions: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, COPD, hip/knee replacement, and CABG surgery.
- 30-day Readmission rates — 15% weight. Risk-adjusted readmission rates across seven condition categories. High readmission rates signal inadequate discharge planning and care coordination.
- Patient Experience (HCAHPS) — 10% weight. Results from the standardized Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.
Raw domain scores are normalized to a 0–10 scale against the full national distribution of all Medicare-certified facilities. Letter grades are assigned as follows: A (≥8.0), B (6.5–7.9), C (5.0–6.4), D (3.5–4.9), F (<3.5).
Our methodology is reviewed annually. We do not accept requests from hospitals or health systems to adjust their scores.
Editorial Standards
All hospital safety articles on this site are written or reviewed by Dr. Sarah Mitchell, MPH, a public health professional with 14 years of experience in healthcare quality improvement and patient safety research. Articles are fact-checked against CMS source data and reviewed for clinical accuracy before publication. Content is updated annually when CMS publishes new Hospital Compare data.
We follow a strict policy of editorial independence. SafeHospitals USA is not funded by, affiliated with, or in a commercial relationship with any hospital, health system, insurer, or pharmaceutical company. Site revenue is generated through display advertising (Google AdSense) and does not influence editorial content.
Data Sources
All hospital quality data published on SafeHospitals USA is sourced from the CMS Hospital Compare dataset, which is updated annually and available publicly at medicare.gov/care-compare. Additional context and benchmarks are drawn from CDC Healthcare-Associated Infection data, AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators, and published peer-reviewed literature.
Our current dataset reflects the 2024 CMS data release, last verified by our data team on July 15, 2025.