Is The University Hospital Good?
The University Hospital has a CMS quality rating of 1/5 and an Outcome Score of 35/100. Mortality outcomes are worse than average in 1 categories.
This page answers a common question about U.S. hospital cost and quality data: Is The University Hospital Good?. The answer draws on CMS Inpatient Payment files, CMS Hospital Compare quality measures, and the LakeQuality value rubric that combines both. Each underlying source is linked directly so the reasoning can be verified. Why this matters: U.S. hospital costs and quality vary by an order of magnitude between facilities for the same procedure, and the variation is not random — it correlates with hospital type, ownership, regional payment adjustments, and case mix. Understanding how to read the public CMS data is the difference between a defensible hospital choice and a coin flip.
The detailed answer below covers what the underlying data shows, the limitations of that data (the Medicare numbers do not directly tell you what commercial insurance pays, or what you will pay out of pocket), and how to translate the public numbers into the questions a patient or family actually has when comparing hospitals.
Key Data
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| CMS Quality Rating | 1/5 |
| Outcome Score | 35/100 |
| Value Grade | D |
| Avg Payment | $17,224 |
| Mortality Better / Worse | 0 / 1 |
| Safety Better / Worse | 1 / 1 |
How does The University Hospital compare?
On price, The University Hospital's average procedure payment of $17,224 runs $1,346 above the national average of $15,878. Against New Jersey's state average of $20,736, this hospital is $3,512 cheaper.
On quality, the 1-star CMS rating combines mortality, patient safety, readmissions, and patient experience. The University Hospital's 1-star CMS rating is below the national median, which most often reflects elevated readmissions or worse-than-expected outcomes in specific care categories.
The University Hospital has a CMS quality rating of 1/5 and an Outcome Score of 35/100. Mortality outcomes are worse than average in 1 categories.
Source: CMS Hospital Price Transparency, 2026.