Awards & Recognition

The ACR, founded in 1924, is a professional medical society dedicated to serving patients and society by empowering radiology professionals to advance the practice, science and professions of radiological care. The College serves more than 37,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.

The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is only awarded to facilities meeting ACR Practice Parameters and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report that can be used for continuous practice improvement.

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Hospitals report data to CMS through the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) and Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) programs. This data is inputted into the Star Rating Program, a five-star quality rating system created by CMS, that measures the experiences Medicare beneficiaries have with their health plan and health care system.

Hospitals are evaluated for their performance in the areas of patient experience, timeliness and effectiveness of care, complications & deaths, unplanned hospital visits, use of medical imaging, and payment and value of care. The overall hospital rating ranges from 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the highest. The most common overall hospital rating is 3 stars.

There is no better illustration of the value that rural facilities provide to their communities than the annual identification and recognition of the top-performing rural facilities. Each year, the rural hospitals are analyzed through the lens of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX, the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance in the United States. 

Amidst uncertainty, transition and strain, these top performers are excelling in managing risk, achieving higher quality, securing better outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction, and operating at a lower cost than their peers. These groups serve as a benchmark for other rural facilities as they strive to achieve similar results and provide a blueprint for successfully navigating the uncertainty of the new healthcare.

For more information or questions please reach out to CCRH@chartis.com.

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.

An independent, nonprofit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Pioneers in Quality™ recognition is not an indicator or measure of data quality or quality of care, but an indicator of an organization’s commitment to adopting eCQMs toward quality improvement. It recognizes eCQM data reporting and other contributions that advance eCQM adoption in health care.

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year.

The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.