About For The Patient
The most transparent healthcare quality rating system in the United States.
The Story That Started Everything
In December 2023, the North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation declared immediate jeopardy at Mission Hospital in Asheville — a finding that means patients face an imminent threat of serious harm or death.
One month later, in January 2024, Healthgrades named Mission Hospital one of America's 50 Best Hospitals.
In the fall of 2023, the Leapfrog Group had given Mission Hospital an "A" safety grade — their highest rating — without possessing the underlying data to evaluate it.
Three different signals. One hospital. Two said "outstanding." One said "patients are in danger." Only one was based on what was actually happening inside the building.
A 27-year-old expecting mother choosing a maternity hospital. A 64-year-old facing cardiac surgery. A dialysis patient comparing every option within 30 miles. These people deserve quality information that reflects current conditions — not legacy reputations, not self-reported questionnaires, not pay-to-play endorsements.
ForThePatient.org exists because the Mission Hospital story is not unique. It is the norm. The dominant healthcare rating systems in the United States are structurally incapable of catching quality failures in real time — and some are financially entangled with the very facilities they claim to evaluate.
We set out to build something different.
What We Do
ForThePatient.org publishes independent quality scores for every Medicare-certified healthcare facility in the United States. Each facility receives a composite score on a 1.0–10.0 scale, built from weighted components specific to its facility type, and derived entirely from compulsory government-mandated reporting data.
We cover hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis centers, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), and long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). Every facility that participates in Medicare is included. No facility can pay to be featured, removed, or reclassified.
Core Principles
Zero Industry Funding
No facility revenue. No pharmaceutical donations. No advertising from the healthcare industry. Ever. This is not a policy — it is an organizational constraint baked into our bylaws and articles of incorporation.
Compulsory Data Only
We use government-mandated reporting from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Facilities cannot choose what to report, when to report it, or how to frame it. Self-reported quality claims are excluded entirely.
Complete Methodological Transparency
Every formula, every weight, every data transformation is published on our methodology page. If you disagree with a scoring decision, you can see exactly how it was made and submit a dispute.
Exponential Recency Decay
Our scoring model weights recent data exponentially more than older data. A facility that was excellent five years ago but deteriorated last quarter will see its score reflect the decline — not the legacy.
Independent Enforcement Overlay
Regulatory actions — fines, payment denials, abuse citations, Special Focus Facility designations — are applied as an independent layer on top of quality scores. Enforcement catches what quality measures alone cannot.
Zero Industry Funding
Most healthcare rating systems in the United States accept money from the facilities they evaluate. Some sell consulting services to help hospitals improve their ratings. Others accept advertising from hospital systems. A few charge facilities for access to their own quality data.
These financial relationships create structural conflicts of interest that are impossible to fully mitigate. A rating system that depends on hospital revenue cannot credibly threaten to downgrade those same hospitals.
ForThePatient.org accepts zero revenue from the healthcare industry. Our funding comes from individual donors, foundations, and grants that share our commitment to independent patient information. This is not a temporary fundraising strategy — it is a permanent organizational principle enforced through our governing documents.
We believe the question "Who pays for this?" is the single most important question you can ask about any quality rating system.
How Scoring Works
Each facility receives a composite quality score from 1.0 to 10.0, classified as Exceptional, Above Average, Average, Below Average, or Poor. Facilities with insufficient data for scoring are classified as Unrated and still appear on the map.
Composite scores are built from 4–5 weighted components tailored to each facility type. Hospital scores, for example, incorporate mortality, safety & infections, readmissions, patient experience, and timely & effective care — each weighted according to its demonstrated impact on patient outcomes.
What makes our scoring different
- Percentile ranking against national distributions — a facility's performance is measured against all facilities of the same type, using per-measure national distributions rather than arbitrary thresholds.
- Exponential recency decay — recent data carries exponentially more weight, so scores reflect current quality rather than historical averages.
- Enforcement overlay — regulatory actions like fines, payment denials, and abuse citations are applied independently of the quality components, catching problems that clinical measures alone may miss.
- No CMS star blending for most types — where CMS publishes star ratings, we incorporate them as a minor component (10–30%) rather than deferring to them. For most facility types, our scoring is entirely independent of CMS stars.
Full details are available on our methodology page, including exact component weights, data transformations, and scoring formulas for all seven facility types.
Coverage
ForThePatient.org scores every Medicare-certified facility in the United States across seven types:
- Hospitals — 5,421 acute-care and critical-access hospitals
- Nursing Homes — 14,713 skilled nursing facilities
- Dialysis Centers — 7,557 end-stage renal disease facilities
- Home Health Agencies — 12,251 home-based care providers
- Hospices — 6,970 end-of-life care providers
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities — 1,221 post-acute rehabilitation centers
- Long-Term Care Hospitals — 319 facilities for extended acute care
Data is sourced from CMS's Provider Data Catalog, which publishes 24 datasets updated quarterly. Our scoring engine processes all datasets through a unified pipeline and refreshes scores when CMS publishes new data.
501(c)(3) Status
ForThePatient.org is organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of Georgia. Our charitable purpose is to empower patients with transparent, data-driven healthcare quality information.
As a 501(c)(3), we are prohibited from distributing profits to any private individual. All revenue is reinvested in our mission: expanding data coverage, improving scoring methodologies, and making healthcare quality information freely accessible to every patient in the United States.
Our long-term vision includes a complementary 501(c)(4) advocacy organization to advance healthcare quality policy, but the rating system itself will always remain independent, nonpartisan, and free from industry influence.
Contact
ForThePatient.org is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
For general inquiries, data questions, or partnership discussions, reach us at hello@forthepatient.org.
To dispute a facility score or report a data error, please use our formal dispute process to ensure your request is tracked and resolved within 30 days.
Media inquiries: press@forthepatient.org.