The STS star rating system, one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, compares outcomes from cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada.
While the Society encourages hospitals and surgery groups to share their quality ratings and publicize their achievements, it is expected that the same high standards of professionalism responsible for such clinical excellence also will be demonstrated by the ethical manner in which these achievements are shared with the public. Please note that direct hospital-to-hospital comparisons are considered inappropriate. Such comparisons, or any false or misleading uses of the quality ratings, may lead to STS disciplinary action that could injure the reputations of the hospitals and surgeons whose achievements the Society seeks to celebrate.
STS has developed a Public Reporting Toolkit as a comprehensive and practical guide to help participants announce their star ratings. The Toolkit contains various resources related to STS Public Reporting and the STS National Database in one convenient location:
If you have questions about Public Reporting and how to share your star ratings, contact Kathy Cummings, Associate Director of Communications, via email.