Why We Built SafeHospitals USA
Every year, more than 36 million Americans are admitted to hospitals. The vast majority enter those facilities without any independent, objective information about how their chosen hospital actually performs on the measures that most directly affect their health outcomes. Insurance company directories tell you who is in-network. Google Maps tells you where the parking is. Neither tells you whether a hospital has a better-than-average mortality rate for the procedure you need, or whether its infection control practices meet national standards.
SafeHospitals USA was founded to fill that gap. We are an independent health information platform that collects, processes, and presents official hospital safety data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in a format that is accessible, actionable, and genuinely useful to patients making real healthcare decisions.
We have no financial relationships with any hospital, health system, insurance company, or pharmaceutical manufacturer. We do not accept sponsored content. Our only obligation is to the accuracy of our data and the usefulness of our presentation.
Our Data Sources
Every Safety Score on SafeHospitals USA is calculated using data published by the CMS Provider Data Catalog — the official federal repository for Medicare quality and safety information. Our primary data sources include:
- CMS Hospital General Information: Facility type, ownership, emergency services, geographic data
- CMS Complications and Deaths: Hospital-specific mortality and complication rates versus national benchmarks
- CMS Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI): Standardized infection ratio data across MRSA, C. diff, CAUTI, CLABSI, and more
- CMS Unplanned Hospital Visits: 30-day readmission and emergency department return rates
- HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems): Standardized patient experience survey data
- CMS Timely and Effective Care: Adherence to evidence-based clinical process measures
Data is updated annually following each CMS release cycle. Our current dataset reflects CMS Provider Data Catalog publications through 2024–2025. All data is publicly available at data.cms.gov.
Our Editorial Standards
All written content on SafeHospitals USA meets the following standards before publication:
- Written by a registered nurse, physician, or experienced health communications professional
- Reviewed against current CDC, CMS, AHRQ, Joint Commission, and peer-reviewed guidelines
- Includes a medical disclaimer on every page
- Sources cited to official government or peer-reviewed sources
- Updated when clinical guidelines or policy changes
- Free from paid placement, sponsored content, or advertiser influence
Meet Our Team
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Sarah Mitchell, RN, BSN
Lead Clinical Writer & Registered Nurse — Editorial Director
Sarah is a registered nurse with 12 years of clinical experience across medical-surgical, emergency, and ICU settings in U.S. acute care hospitals. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and has worked in hospital quality improvement roles, directly overseeing patient safety data collection and reporting. Sarah leads all clinical content on SafeHospitals USA, ensuring every article reflects current evidence-based practice and is useful to real patients navigating the U.S. healthcare system.
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Dr. David Walsh, MD, FACP
Medical Reviewer — Internal Medicine & Hospital Medicine
Dr. Walsh is a board-certified internist and Fellow of the American College of Physicians with 18 years of inpatient hospital medicine experience. He completed his residency and fellowship training at academic medical centers and has served on hospital quality committees reviewing patient safety data. He reviews all clinical content on SafeHospitals USA for medical accuracy and ensures our data interpretations reflect current standards of care.
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Karen Liu, MPH
Data Analyst — Healthcare Quality & CMS Data
Karen holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in healthcare quality measurement. She has spent 8 years working with CMS quality data in both academic research and health policy contexts. Karen is responsible for our data pipeline, Safety Score methodology, and the accuracy of all hospital-specific statistics published on this platform.
⚠️ Important Disclaimer
SafeHospitals USA is an informational platform only. We do not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. All content is for general educational purposes. For personal health decisions, always consult a licensed U.S. healthcare provider. For medical emergencies, call 911 immediately. Our data reflects aggregate hospital performance — it does not guarantee outcomes for individual patients or specific procedures.