States ranked by 5-star hospital share in 2026

Utah has the highest share of hospitals with five stars under CMS’ Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings system, a Becker’s analysis shows.

CMS updated its star ratings on May 13. Of the 3,182 hospitals rated nationally, 384 received five stars. Of Utah’s 29 rated hospitals, 51.7% earned five stars — more than four times the 12.1% national average.

Seven states had no five-star hospitals at all: Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

CMS scores hospitals on a one-to-five star scale using mortality, safety, readmission, patient experience, and timeliness and effectiveness measures. Not every hospital receives a rating — CMS excludes facilities that don’t report enough of the underlying measures, a gap that falls disproportionately on small, rural and specialty hospitals. The rankings below measure five-star share against each state’s rated hospitals only, not its total hospital count, and exclude U.S. territories in CMS’ dataset.

Here is the share of five-star hospitals in every state and Washington, D.C.

Note: For states with fewer than 20 rated hospitals, a single facility’s rating can shift percentages by several points, so rankings should be treated as directional rather than precise for these states.