Which Hospital, Honestly.

One hexagon per state, shaded by the median CMS overall star rating across that state's rated hospitals - deeper petrol means a higher median. The upper Midwest and Mountain West run reliably high; a band from the Deep South through the Mid-Atlantic runs lower. The national median across all 2,866 rated hospitals is 3 stars.

Highest medians: WI (4), CO (4), KS (4). Lowest: VI (1), GU (2), PR (2). State medians observed run 1 to 4 on the 1-5 scale; because ratings are coarse (whole stars), most states land on a whole-number median. A handful of tiles rest on very few rated hospitals, so read those as directional, not precise. Territories outside the tile grid: PR (median 2, 8 rated), GU (median 2, 1 rated), VI (median 1, 2 rated).

Hospitals that earn five stars on the CMS overall rating and beat the national average on more measures than they trail it. Sorted by a composite that blends the star rating with the share of measures rated "better" minus those rated "worse" - shrunk toward the mean for hospitals reporting fewer measures, so a small specialty hospital can't game it with two lucky scores.

1. 01

   Mayo Clinic Hospital Rochester

   MN Rochester · Nonprofit / Church
   +17 / −0

   of 26 measures
2. 02

   Nyu Langone Hospitals

   NY New York · Nonprofit / Private
   +17 / −1

   of 26 measures
3. 03

   Morristown Medical Center

   NJ Morristown · Nonprofit / Private
   +12 / −2

   of 26 measures
4. 04

   Sarasota Memorial Hospital

   FL Sarasota · Government - Hospital District or Authority
   +11 / −1

   of 26 measures
5. 05

   Mayo Clinic

   FL Jacksonville · Nonprofit / Private
   +10 / −0

   of 26 measures
6. 06

   Northshore University Healthsystem - Evanston Hospital

   IL Evanston · Nonprofit / Other
   +11 / −2

   of 26 measures
7. 07

   New York-Presbyterian Hospital

   NY New York · Nonprofit / Private
   +11 / −2

   of 26 measures
8. 08

   Mayo Clinic Hospital

   AZ Phoenix · Nonprofit / Private
   +9 / −0

   of 26 measures
9. 09

   Lancaster General Hospital

   PA Lancaster · Nonprofit / Private
   +9 / −0

   of 26 measures
10. 10

    Intermountain Medical Center

    UT Murray · Nonprofit / Private
    +8 / −0

    of 24 measures
11. 11

    Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

    CA Los Angeles · Nonprofit / Other
    +11 / −3

    of 26 measures
12. 12

    Hackensack University Medical Center

    NJ Hackensack · Nonprofit / Private
    +11 / −3

    of 26 measures
13. 13

    Rush University Medical Center

    IL Chicago · Nonprofit / Private
    +10 / −2

    of 26 measures
14. 14

    Houston Methodist Hospital

    TX Houston · Nonprofit / Private
    +10 / −2

    of 26 measures
15. 15

    Poudre Valley Hospital

    CO Fort Collins · Nonprofit / Private
    +7 / −0

    of 23 measures
16. 16

    White Plains Hospital Center

    NY White Plains · Nonprofit / Private
    +8 / −1

    of 24 measures
17. 17

    Sequoia Hospital

    CA Redwood City · Nonprofit / Private
    +7 / −1

    of 20 measures
18. 18

    Alta Bates Summit Medical Center

    CA Oakland · Nonprofit / Private
    +7 / −0

    of 25 measures

Filter the data for high-rated hospitals outside the major brand-name circuit and an unexpected pattern shows up: the federal Veterans Affairs system. The VA gets a lot of bad press, much of it about access. On the outcomes that CMS measures, an unusual share of VA medical centers sit at four or five stars. Worth knowing whether you'd qualify, or whether you live near one.

A reputation is durable. The numbers are not. These hospitals carry the kind of name that suggests prestige - "Memorial," "Medical Center," "University," "Saint-something" - but their CMS rating or measure performance comes in below the line. Not a verdict; a flag worth knowing about before a planned procedure.

How the ratings pile up - nationally, then state by state. CMS assigns an overall rating only to hospitals reporting enough measures; among the 2,866 rated, the shape is a broad hump around three stars, with five-star and one-star hospitals both rare. Each state below carries the full 1-5 star mix as one stacked strip, so a state that runs high (deep-petrol heavy) is instantly distinct from one that runs low.

54 of 56 states + territories shown - those with at least one CMS-rated hospital. Each strip is normalized to 100% of that state's rated hospitals, so it shows the mix of star levels, not the count; the Rated column is the sample size, and states with few rated hospitals read as directional.

The hospital industry isn't homogeneous - federal, state, county, nonprofit-religious, nonprofit-secular, for-profit, physician-owned. Each strip is the full 1-5 star distribution across that type's rated hospitals, normalized to 100% - the shape of quality, not an average that flattens it. The Veterans Health Administration's near-half-five-star skew is the surprise; for-profit (Proprietary) hospitals pile up at one and two stars.

Strips are normalized to 100% of each type's rated hospitals, so widths are shares, not counts - a wide segment is a large proportion, and small-sample types (Physician, Government - Federal) read as directional. Rows are ordered by mean rating, high to low. 2,546 hospitals across these types report too few measures for a CMS overall rating and are excluded from every strip; the Hospitals and Rated columns show that gap.