2026 Quality priorities for South Puget Sound
SOUTH PUGET SOUND -- As we begin 2026, our focus remains aligned with our 2030 aspiration to “Be the best place to give and receive care.” Achieving a 5-star Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rating by 2030 is a key component of that vision — and an essential indicator of how well we deliver safe, effective and patient-centered care.
Today, Providence Centralia Hospital holds 4 stars, Providence St. Peter Hospital holds 3 stars, and projections indicate both sites may be at 3 stars this year. This underscores the importance of the work we begin now — because the actions we take in 2026 will influence the ratings published in 2028.
Understanding the CMS Star Rating System
CMS evaluates hospital quality across five domains that reflect outcomes, safety, and patient experience:
- Mortality
- Safety of care
- Readmission
- Patient experience
- Timely & effective care
Only a small number of hospitals — about 290 nationally in 2025 — earned 5 stars, underscoring that excellence requires sustained, systemwide effort.
Where we’re strong
We enter 2026 with meaningful strengths that provide a solid foundation for improvement:
- Top quartile patient experience
- Leapfrog Safety Grade “A”
- Demonstrated success in length-of-stay
- A growing culture of safety and performance improvement
These strengths position us well to focus on the areas that will have the greatest impact on future CMS scores.
Key priorities for 2026
To move the needle toward our 2030 goal, we will focus on the areas with the greatest impact on the CMS scoring methodology:
Emphasis on:
- Heart failure
- Pneumonia
- Total knee and total hip surgeries
These efforts require close collaboration across Surgery, Infection Prevention, Nursing, Medical Staff and Quality teams.
We have remained stagnant here, but targeted, consistent attention can result in rapid improvement.
Leveraging better data: Dexur
This year we will begin using Dexur, an AI-enabled analytics tool that provides clearer visibility into our performance relative to national benchmarks. Dexur will help us pinpoint where variation exists and where focused physician engagement can drive measurable gains.
Looking forward
Reaching 5 stars by 2030 is an ambitious but achievable goal — if we begin laying the groundwork now. Your clinical leadership and partnership are essential as we advance quality, safety and patient experience for our communities.
