USCareCheck

CMS certification 051331

Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital

2050 Viborg Rd, Solvang, CA 93463

Critical Access Hospitals Emergency services

CMS does not publish an overall star rating for Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital. 91% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. On all 5 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it is no different from the national rate. Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 21 min in its emergency department before leaving (US median 2 h 42 min).

Every figure on this page is published by CMS; we arrange and explain it, and score nothing ourselves.

CMS overall rating Not rated There are too few measures or measure groups reported to calculate a star rating or measure group score.
Would definitely recommend 91% US average 71%
Patient survey rating Not rated 48 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 0 worse 0 better of 5 measures CMS could compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 48 completed surveys, 41% response rate, Oct 2024 – Sep 2025.

Very few patients were eligible for the CAHPS survey. The scores shown reflect fewer than 50 completed surveys. Use these scores with caution, as the number of surveys may be too low to reliably assess facility performance.
Would definitely recommend the hospital
91%
CA 69% · US 71%
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
89%
CA 68% · US 72%
Nurses always communicated well
92%
CA 76% · US 80%
Doctors always communicated well
90%
CA 76% · US 80%
Staff always explained new medicines
66%
CA 59% · US 62%
Given information about recovering at home
86%
CA 85% · US 86%
Room was always clean
86%
CA 72% · US 74%
Always quiet at night
80%
CA 48% · US 60%

This hospital California average US average

Emergency department

How long emergency patients spent here and how some time-critical care went, from CMS's timely and effective care measures, Oct 2024 – Sep 2025. CMS classes this emergency department's patient volume as low; busier departments tend to have longer times, so the national median for departments of the same volume is shown too. These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.

Measure This hospital CA US
Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 385 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 2 h 21 min 2 h 54 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 16 visits sampled 1 h 56 min 4 h 20 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 11,361 patients 1% 2% 2%

How Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital compares with nearby hospitals

The closest hospitals of the same kind that CMS rates or surveys - the same city first, then the same county and ZIP area. Every figure is CMS's: the overall star rating, the share of patients who would definitely recommend the hospital, the median time emergency patients spent before leaving, and how many death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS found better or worse than the national rate.

Hospital CMS stars Would recommend ER median time Vs the nation
Santa Ynez Valley Cottage HospitalThis hospitalNot rated91%2 h 21 minNo different
Marian Regional Medical CenterSame county · Santa Maria3/568%2 h 55 min3 better 3 worse
Lompoc Valley Medical CenterSame county · Lompoc1/545%2 h 51 min4 worse
Goleta Valley Cottage HospitalSame county · Santa Barbara5/585%2 h 29 min1 better 1 worse
Santa Barbara Cottage HospitalSame county · Santa Barbara4/585%3 h 5 min5 better 3 worse
Adventist Health Twin CitiesSame ZIP area · Templeton2/560%2 h 19 min1 better 2 worse

Hospitals differ in size and in how sick their patients are. CMS adjusts its outcome measures for that, but a star or a percentage is a starting point for questions, not a verdict.

Deaths

How many patients died within 30 days of admission, adjusted by CMS for how sick they were. Lower is better. Data from Jul 2022 – Jun 2025.

Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
All patients, hospital-wide 62 cases Too few cases 3.6% 3.9%
Pneumonia 56 cases Too few cases 11.5% 15.2%

5 more measures had too few cases here to report.

Readmissions and return visits

How often patients had to come back to a hospital after going home. Lower is better. Data from Jul 2023 – Jun 2025.

1 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Readmitted after pneumonia 43 cases Too few cases 17% 17.3%
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 52 cases Too few cases -20.3 days per 100 —
Unplanned visits after an outpatient colonoscopy 647 cases No different 12.8 per 1,000 likely 9.5 per 1,000 – 17.4 per 1,000 13 per 1,000

11 more measures had too few cases here to report.

Not reported for this hospital

CMS had too few cases here to publish results for complications, infections caught in the hospital. That is common at small, rural and specialty hospitals, and says nothing either way about quality.

How to read this page

  • Everything here is published by CMS on Care Compare. We arrange it and explain it; the star ratings and the better / worse verdicts are CMS's, not ours.
  • “No different” is the most common result on most measures at most hospitals. CMS only calls a result better or worse when the difference from the national rate is statistically clear.
  • Death, complication and readmission rates are adjusted by CMS for how sick patients were, so hospitals that treat sicker patients can be compared fairly.
  • Infection results are ratios: 1.0 means as many infections as CMS predicted for a hospital like this one, below 1.0 is fewer.
  • These are hospital-wide results. They do not rate an individual doctor, nurse or department, and they are not medical advice.

CMS Care Compare data retrieved 4 Oct 2026, refreshed weekly. Where this data comes from and how we handle it · Report an error

Common questions about Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital

Is Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital a good hospital?

CMS does not publish an overall star rating for Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital. On all 5 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it is no different from the national rate. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital?

91% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 48 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 21 min in its emergency department before leaving (US median 2 h 42 min). Among US emergency departments with low patient volume, like this one, the median is 2 h 3 min. 1% of emergency patients left before being seen (US 2%). These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.