photo by: Contributed

LMH Health's main campus at 325 Maine St.

LMH Health has earned a five-star rating for hospital quality from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the highest score awarded in the agency’s latest rankings.

According to a news release from LMH Health, more than 2,800 hospitals nationwide were evaluated on five quality metrics, with 291 – or 10% – receiving five stars.

Kirk Sloan, chief medical officer at LMH Health, said the five-star rating reflected the dedication and effort of staff throughout the hospital.

“To be in the top 10% of the country is amazing. You have to be better than everyone else,” he said in the release. “The five-star rating shows we’re taking excellent care of patients, being really safe and proactive as we provide that care.”

In 2016, CMS introduced star ratings to make hospital quality data easier to understand. Hospitals that participate in CMS programs submit data across key areas such as readmission, mortality, safety of care, patient experience, and timely and effective care.

This information is used to assign each hospital a star rating, offering an overall view of its quality. Ratings are distributed on a bell curve within peer groups, meaning hospitals are compared only with others submitting data in the same categories.

“There are many quality standards and measures in healthcare, but the CMS star rating has really emerged as the gold standard,” Russ Johnson, LMH Health president and CEO, said in the release. “Achieving this level of recognition is a testament to the commitment of teams across the hospital to providing the highest quality care and service to our patients.”

Chief Nursing Officer Jan Wiebe noted that LMH Health is smaller than some of the region’s medical centers, but it continued to stand out.

“We’re a community hospital and don’t have all of the resources as the other five-star hospitals in the area, including The University of Kansas Health System and St. Luke’s,” Wiebe said in the release. “It’s one more thing that points to our commitment to providing great quality care you can get right here at home.”