Local hospital ranks as one of the best

ISHPEMING — According to a national survey, one of the top hospitals in the United States is located right here in the Upper Peninsula. The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services announced Thursday night that UP Health System – Bell is one of two hundred seventy hospitals in the country to be named a five star hospital.

CMS rates hospitals on a scale from one to five stars based on quality and patient satisfaction.

“Our patients are surveyed on how well their outcomes are and also the information that we report to the federal government. That information is based on our quality indicator as well as how well our patients did as far as recover goes,” said Mitchell Leckeit, C.E.O. UP Health Systems-Bell.

Medicare has been rating hospitals for many years, but this is the first time that C–M–S has put anything online for patients to look at and use when they are making their health care decisions.

“I think that this hospital, and this not anything new, even before, we’ve been here 7 years now, even before when we were at our older hospital which was over 100 years old,” added Leckeit. “Bell has consistently achieved high scores and high satisfaction. It says a lot about our staff and volunteers and our medical staff. They are dedicated and they truly believe in what they do and do what is best for the patient. We also want to thank the community for their support for Bell Hospital and making this the place they come for their health care.”

This survey is ongoing and will be updated either quarterly or semi–annually.