Where the listings come from
The directory currently holds 7,015 hospitals, 6,131 of them Medicare-certified. The data comes from public sources:
- CMS Provider Data Catalog. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publish every Medicare-certified hospital with its CMS Certification Number, address, phone, hospital type, ownership, emergency services, the Birthing-Friendly designation and the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating (“Hospital General Information”). We add emergency department and sepsis measures from “Timely and Effective Care”, infection rates from “Healthcare Associated Infections”, and patient survey results from HCAHPS. Rehabilitation hospitals and long-term care hospitals come from the CMS Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility and Long-Term Care Hospital files; rehabilitation units inside a general hospital are shown on that hospital's page. CMS data is in the public domain.
- HIFLD Hospitals (U.S. Department of Homeland Security). The Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data hospitals layer, compiled from state licensing and trauma registries, supplies trauma center designations, licensed bed counts and helipads. We only use these when the HIFLD record describes the same kind of hospital, and we drop Level I or II designations that are implausible for a very small hospital. HIFLD also confirms that a hospital found only in OpenStreetMap is open, or flags it as closed. HIFLD data is in the public domain; each page shows its source date.
- U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder. Turns each CMS street address into map coordinates. When it cannot match an address, we use the matched OpenStreetMap hospital, or the ZIP code center as a last resort, and say so on the page.
- OpenStreetMap. Volunteer mappers add websites, bed counts, alternate names and Wikipedia links, and map hospitals that are not in the Medicare list. OpenStreetMap data is © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License.
We match OpenStreetMap hospitals to CMS records by phone number, or by a similar name within about two kilometers. Hospitals found only in OpenStreetMap are shown with a note. They are kept out of search engines unless HIFLD confirms they are open.
How we classify hospitals
Hospital type and ownership come straight from the CMS record. A hospital is a “5-star hospital” only when its current CMS Overall Star Rating is 5, an “emergency room” only when it reports emergency services to CMS, and a “trauma center” only when the HIFLD data records a designation. Trauma designations are renewed by states every few years, so confirm the current level with the state EMS office. When we don't know, the page says “Not reported”. See all hospital types for the rule behind each category.
About star ratings and wait times
The CMS Overall Star Rating summarizes up to five groups of measures. Many hospitals, such as critical access, psychiatric and VA hospitals, are not rated because they report too few measures. An unrated hospital is not a worse hospital. Emergency department times are medians over a reporting period and vary by day and hour.
How often the data is updated
We refresh every source monthly. CMS updates most hospital files quarterly, so ratings and wait times can be several months behind the reporting period shown on each page.
Corrections and verification
Every listing has a correction form. Hospital staff and patients can suggest changes, and we review each one before publishing. A listing shows “Verified” only after its details have been confirmed.
What we do not publish
- Ratings or reviews we cannot attribute to a real source.
- Rankings of our own. Every quality figure on the site is CMS data, labeled as such.
- Medical advice. This site is for information only. In an emergency, call 911.