Measure explainer
Complications & Deaths
Rates of serious complications (like hip/knee replacement problems or accidental cuts during surgery) and 30-day mortality rates for common conditions.
How CMS calculates it
These measures track how often patients experience serious problems during or after treatment, and how many die within 30 days of admission for conditions like heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, COPD, and stroke.
Why it matters
These measures give patients, clinicians, and hospital boards a standardized way to compare care quality across facilities. For complications & deaths, the general rule is lower is better. Always weigh a single measure alongside the full picture — case-mix, hospital size, and whether the measure is publicly reported for the hospital in question.
How to read the scores on this site
- Score: the hospital's reported value.
- Compared to national: better than, no different from, or worse than the US average, with a color dot and text label.
- Sample: the denominator or number of cases the score is based on. Larger samples are more statistically reliable.