St. Luke's University Health Network's hospitals were awarded four stars this week in the annual Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) national ratings of hospitals.

                St. Luke's University Hospital, St. Luke's Allentown Hospital, St. Luke's Anderson Hospital, St. Luke's Miners Hospital and St. Luke's Quakertown Hospital all received four stars out of five. St. Luke's Warren Hospital earned a 3-star rating.

                The new rating summarizes up to 64 quality measures over seven categories that include mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging.

                Medicare, through its publicly available Hospital Compare program, gives information about the quality of care at more than 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals across the country. The information is structured to help consumers make decisions about where to get health care.                The comparisons are also designed to encourage hospitals to improve the quality of care they provide, according to Medicare.gov.

                The CMS' Overall Hospital Star Rating is an extremely helpful tool in helping consumers choose the best hospital. The agency is committed to transparency and accurate reporting of the quality measures that show hospitals of all types are capable of performing well on the star ratings. 

                 "We are proud of this significant accomplishment. Our ability to achieve 4-star ratings across our hospitals is a testament to the high quality care we provide to all patients on a daily basis," St. Luke's Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol said.

"CMS analysis shows that all types of hospitals including teaching, safety net and critical access have both low performing hospitals and high performing hospitals," Sabol added.

                St. Luke's University Health Network serves as a health care safety net for all Lehigh Valley communities. For example, among the many St. Luke's initiatives that seek to provide easy access to health care, the network provides care to underserved communities as part of its Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine. The department's mission is to make the health status and quality of life in the region better by improving access to care, promoting child and adolescent health, and continuing to help eliminate health disparities.

                St. Luke's provides significant financial and leadership resources to fulfill these goals.