USCareCheck

CMS certification 051335

Bear Valley Community Hospital

41870 Garstin Dr, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

Critical Access Hospitals Emergency services

CMS does not publish an overall star rating for Bear Valley Community Hospital. 85% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 19 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 85% US average 71%
Patient survey rating Not rated 33 completed surveys
Compared with the nation Too few cases for CMS to compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 33 completed surveys, 20% 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
85%
CA 69% · US 71%
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
88%
CA 68% · US 72%
Nurses always communicated well
85%
CA 76% · US 80%
Doctors always communicated well
84%
CA 76% · US 80%
Staff always explained new medicines
77%
CA 59% · US 62%
Given information about recovering at home
89%
CA 85% · US 86%
Room was always clean
69%
CA 72% · US 74%
Always quiet at night
45%
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 · 361 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 2 h 19 min 2 h 54 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 11 visits sampled 4 h 35 min 4 h 20 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 12,139 patients 2% 2% 2%
Stroke symptoms: brain scan read within 45 minutes Higher is better · 12 patients 67% 74% 69%

How Bear Valley Community 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
Bear Valley Community HospitalThis hospitalNot rated85%2 h 19 min—
Barstow Community HospitalSame county · Barstow1/567%2 h 43 min1 better
Weed ACH (FT Irwin)Same county · Fort IrwinNot rated81%2 h 11 min—
Providence St Mary Medical CenterSame county · Apple Valley2/553%3 h 48 min1 better 3 worse
Arrowhead Regional Medical CenterSame county · Colton2/573%3 h 24 min2 better 1 worse
Kaiser Foundation Hospital Fontana/OntarioSame county · Fontana3/578%—3 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 64 cases Too few cases 5.2% 3.9%

6 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, readmissions and return visits. That is common at small, rural and specialty hospitals, and says nothing either way about quality.

Clinicians registered at this address

16 clinicians give this hospital's street address as their practice location in NPPES, the federal provider registry. The same address can take in offices and clinics in the building, and a listing does not prove admitting privileges or current employment.

Specialty Clinicians
Emergency Medicine 4
Community Health Worker 2
Family 2
Physician Assistant 2
Clinical 1
Family Medicine 1
Nurse Anesthetist, Certified Registered 1
Nurse Practitioner 1
Pharmacist 1
Psychiatry 1

First 12 alphabetically

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 Bear Valley Community Hospital

Would patients recommend Bear Valley Community Hospital?

85% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 33 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Bear Valley Community Hospital emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 19 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. 2% of emergency patients left before being seen (US 2%). These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.