A comparison between hospital rankings and outcomes data

Hospital rankings have become common but the agreement between the rankings and correlation with patient-centered outcomes remains unknown. We examined the ratings of Joint Commission on Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), Leapfrog, and US News and World Report (USNews), and outcomes from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Hospital Compare (CMS) for agreement and correlation. There was some correlation among the three “best hospitals” ratings. There was also some correlation between “best hospitals” and CMS outcomes, but often in a negative direction. These data suggest that no one “best hospital” list identifies hospitals that consistently attain better outcomes