Hospital rankings can provide useful benchmark information; however, it is important to understand what factors may impact such rankings. Every year, Georgia Trend evaluates Georgia hospitals that participated in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program. The hospitals are ranked by the total performance score that is usually derived from four domains: clinical outcomes; person and community engagement; safety; and efficiency and cost reduction. Due to the pandemic, CMS adopted a policy to pause the use of data if it determined that COVID-19 had a significant impact on such measures. Last year’s rankings were based only on the clinical outcomes domain.
This year’s rankings are based on two of the four domains: the clinical outcomes domain and the efficiency and cost-reduction domain. As in past rankings, hospitals were grouped by similar size and mission to include the categories of: Teaching Hospitals, whose primary mission is teaching, regardless of size, and which are certified by the Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems; Large Hospitals (250+ patient beds); Medium Hospitals (100 to 249 beds); and Small Hospitals (less than 100 beds). These rankings are based on the American Hospital Directory and CMS data downloaded July 29, 2023.
