An open-source application for obtaining retrospective and prospective insights into overall hospital quality star ratings

Abstract

Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings (overall star ratings) are designed to assist healthcare consumers by summarizing dozens of hospital quality measures. These ratings are also used by hospitals to direct quality improvements and are often used in healthcare research. However, no analytical tools have been developed to provide insights into the data, measures, and scores of the overall star rating system. To this end, we developed a novel open-source application to provide retrospective insights, prospective estimates, and research-ready data. Users can 1) examine changes in hospital performance from 2021 onward, 2) recalculate overall star ratings based on hypothetical improvements, 3) download data for all hospitals included in the overall star rating system since 2021, and 4) obtain prospective estimates based on the overall star rating methodology and its data source (Care Compare). We demonstrate 99.6% accuracy when estimating overall star ratings six months prior to public release. Estimates of whether hospitals will retain their star rating are up to 90% accurate a year before public release. We discuss the use of our application in healthcare research and the potential for similar tools to be developed for other hospital rating and ranking systems.