Editorial policy
JCIPatientSafety.org is an independent directory of US hospital quality data. This policy describes how content is written, reviewed, and kept current - and the guardrails that keep our presentation of the data neutral.
Sources
Every hospital fact on this site - identity, address, phone, ownership, hospital type, emergency-services flag, overall star rating, and every underlying quality measure - comes directly from the CMS Provider Data Catalog. We do not use press releases, hospital-supplied numbers, or third-party rankings. See our data sources page for the specific datasets used.
How pages are written
- Hospital pages are generated from the latest CMS release. Editorial copy is limited to plain-language framing and never changes the underlying scores.
- Category and methodology pages are written by the editorial team and reviewed against the CMS technical documentation before publication.
- AI is used for spelling, phrasing, and code assistance; every editorial page is reviewed by a human before it goes live.
Review cadence
- Hospital data is refreshed on each quarterly CMS release. The "Data as of" date on every hospital page shows which release is in use.
- Methodology, glossary, and category explainers are reviewed at least annually and whenever CMS materially changes a measure.
- Corrections are addressed within five business days of confirmation.
Independence
- We do not accept payment from hospitals or hospital systems for placement, ordering, or removal.
- We do not accept sponsored editorial content or "advertorial" placements on hospital pages.
- Ordering on ranked pages (for example "Highest-rated hospitals in [state]") is deterministic and driven by the CMS overall star rating; ties break alphabetically.
Advertising
If display advertising is added in the future, ads will be clearly labeled and will not influence which hospitals are listed, how they are described, or how ranking pages are ordered.
Conflicts of interest
Editors and reviewers disclose any employment, consulting, or ownership relationship with a hospital or hospital system they help cover, and recuse themselves from editorial decisions about those facilities.
Not medical advice
Nothing on this site is medical advice. Ratings describe hospital performance across populations over time and cannot predict the care any individual patient will receive. See our medical disclaimer.
Contact
Editorial questions: editorial@jcipatientsafety.org. Corrections: corrections policy.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-14.