{"id":797781,"date":"2026-08-01T17:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797781\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:35:25","slug":"nearly-two-thirds-of-wisconsin-hospitals-receive-top-federal-quality-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797781\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsin hospitals receive top federal quality ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin ranks among the best in the country for high-quality hospitals based on federal data.<\/p>\n

Of the 86 Wisconsin hospitals rated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 64 percent received a four- or five-star rating for overall hospital quality.<\/p>\n

Compared to other states, it\u2019s the fourth-highest percentage of top-rated hospitals, and the highest percentage reported among states with 50 or more hospitals, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.<\/p>\n

Understanding Wisconsin, Together.<\/p>\n

WPR\u2019s \u201cWisconsin Today\u201d newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter.<\/p>\n

The quality ratings are based on metrics across five categories including re-admissions, patient experience and mortality.<\/p>\n

Nadine Allen, WHA\u2019s chief quality officer, said the ratings are meant to help patients make informed decisions about where they want to receive care. She said for many Wisconsin residents, a four- or five-star choice may not be far away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a couple of our larger systems or larger hospitals,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just in urban areas, but anywhere you go in Wisconsin, you can see the consistent message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six of the 21 Wisconsin hospitals that received a perfect rating are critical access hospitals<\/a>, or rural locations that are more than 35 miles from another hospital and have 25 or fewer inpatient beds. Another eight critical access hospitals received a four-star rating, out of the 34 total hospitals with that rating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some thoughts on critical access hospitals that smaller doesn\u2019t always mean better,\u201d said Kayla Mobley, director of quality services at Tomah Health, a critical access hospital in Monroe County that received a five-star rating this year.<\/p>\n

But Mobley said she sees Tomah Health\u2019s small size as a strength for providing a positive patient experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that they are members of our community,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re not just a number when they come here. They\u2019re very well our neighbors or our coworkers, and so we want to make sure that we are providing exceptional care for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ModernTomah Health, a 25-bed hospital in rural Monroe County, is one of six critical access hospitals in Wisconsin that received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this year. Photo courtesy of Tomah Health<\/p>\n

Mobley said comparing the quality of care across health systems of different sizes and with different services is complex, and the star rating system doesn\u2019t always capture the nuances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in part because not every hospital receives a star rating. Allen said the federal agency requires data from a certain number and variety of Medicare and Medicaid patients.<\/p>\n

In Wisconsin, two out of five hospitals in the state did not receive a star rating, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. That includes just over half of the state\u2019s critical access hospitals.<\/p>\n

This year was the first in several years that Tomah Health met the requirements for a rating, according to Mobley. She said it reaffirms what the health system has already seen through monitoring patient outcomes and feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to see the five-star recognition,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wisconsin ranks among the best in the country for high-quality hospitals based on federal data. Of the 86…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-797781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}