Hospital rating organizations' quality and patient safety scores: analysis of result discrepancies.

Patients and families can look at various rating systems to compare hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers. This study compared ratings of four national hospital rating organizations: Hospital Compare, Healthgrades, The Leapfrog Group, and US News and World Report. The results showed discordance between hospital ratings on several important overall and condition-specific measures, potentially causing confusion for patients seeking care.