USCareCheck

CMS certification 161323

Mitchell County Regional Health

616 North Eighth Street, Osage, IA 50461

Critical Access Hospitals

Mitchell County Regional Health has a CMS overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. 76% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. Of the 7 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on none and worse on 1. Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 29 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 3/5 CMS summary of quality measures
Would definitely recommend 76% US average 71%
Patient survey rating Not rated 70 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 1 worse 0 better of 7 measures CMS could compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 70 completed surveys, 45% response rate, Oct 2024 – Sep 2025.

Fewer than 100 patients completed the CAHPS survey. Use these scores with caution, as the number of surveys may be too low to reliably assess facility performance.
Would definitely recommend the hospital
76%
IA 76% · US 71%
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
81%
IA 78% · US 72%
Nurses always communicated well
82%
IA 83% · US 80%
Doctors always communicated well
88%
IA 82% · US 80%
Staff always explained new medicines
69%
IA 65% · US 62%
Given information about recovering at home
94%
IA 89% · US 86%
Room was always clean
84%
IA 78% · US 74%
Always quiet at night
74%
IA 65% · US 60%

This hospital Iowa 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 IA US
Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 249 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 1 h 29 min 2 h 3 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 14 visits sampled 2 h 45 min 3 h 37 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 3,651 patients 0% 3% 2%

How Mitchell County Regional Health 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
Mitchell County Regional HealthThis hospital3/576%1 h 29 min1 worse
Hancock County Health SystemSame ZIP area · BrittNot rated89%1 h 53 minNo different
Iowa Specialty Hospital - BelmondSame ZIP area · BelmondNot rated77%1 h 28 minNo different
Mercyone North Iowa Medical CenterSame ZIP area · Mason City2/557%3 h 13 min2 better 3 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 157 cases Too few cases 4.7% 3.9%
Heart failure 29 cases Too few cases 12.5% 11.1%
Pneumonia 54 cases Too few cases 15.9% 15.2%

4 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 45 cases Too few cases 17.1% 17.3%
Days back in hospital after heart failure 30 cases Too few cases 19.2 days per 100 —
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 49 cases Too few cases -2.2 days per 100 —
Unplanned visits after outpatient surgery 53 cases No different 1 likely 0.7 – 1.5 —

10 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 Mitchell County Regional Health

Is Mitchell County Regional Health a good hospital?

Mitchell County Regional Health has a CMS overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. Of the 7 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on none and worse on 1. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Mitchell County Regional Health?

76% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 70 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Mitchell County Regional Health emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 29 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. 0% of emergency patients left before being seen (US 2%). These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.