USCareCheck

CMS certification 161362

Cherokee Regional Medical Center

300 Sioux Valley Drive, Cherokee, IA 51012

Critical Access Hospitals Emergency services Birthing-friendly

Cherokee Regional Medical Center has a CMS overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars. 68% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. Of the 8 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on none and worse on 3. Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 14 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 2/5 CMS summary of quality measures
Would definitely recommend 68% US average 71%
Patient survey rating Not rated 92 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 3 worse 0 better of 8 measures CMS could compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 92 completed surveys, 33% 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
68%
IA 76% · US 71%
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
75%
IA 78% · US 72%
Nurses always communicated well
85%
IA 83% · US 80%
Doctors always communicated well
84%
IA 82% · US 80%
Staff always explained new medicines
66%
IA 65% · US 62%
Given information about recovering at home
88%
IA 89% · US 86%
Room was always clean
77%
IA 78% · US 74%
Always quiet at night
64%
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 · 330 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 2 h 14 min 2 h 3 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 26 visits sampled 4 h 58 min 3 h 37 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 5,019 patients 0% 3% 2%

How Cherokee Regional Medical Center 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
Cherokee Regional Medical CenterThis hospital2/568%2 h 14 min3 worse
Hawarden Regional HealthcareSame ZIP area · HawardenNot rated88%2 h 38 min1 better
Floyd Valley HealthcareSame ZIP area · Le Mars3/568%2 h 49 min1 better
Burgess Health CenterSame ZIP area · Onawa3/5—2 h 10 min1 worse
Orange City Area Health SystemSame ZIP area · Orange City3/590%1 h 57 min2 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. All hospitals in Cherokee.

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 170 cases Too few cases 5.6% 3.9%
Heart failure 31 cases Too few cases 16.1% 11.1%
Pneumonia 62 cases Too few cases 18.7% 15.2%
COPD 39 cases Too few cases 12.2% 8.6%

3 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.

2 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Readmitted after pneumonia 49 cases Too few cases 16.7% 17.3%
Readmitted after COPD 43 cases Too few cases 19.8% 20%
Days back in hospital after heart failure 30 cases Too few cases -13.7 days per 100 —
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 63 cases Too few cases -33.5 days per 100 —
Unplanned visits after an outpatient colonoscopy 318 cases No different 11.8 per 1,000 likely 8.7 per 1,000 – 15.8 per 1,000 13 per 1,000
Unplanned visits after outpatient surgery 46 cases No different 1 likely 0.7 – 1.5 —

8 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.

Clinicians registered at this address

36 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
Physical Therapist 7
Family 5
Family Medicine 4
Physical Therapy Assistant 4
Nurse Anesthetist, Certified Registered 3
Occupational Therapist 2
Speech-Language Pathologist 2
Athletic Trainer 1
Clinical Nurse Specialist 1
Dermatology 1
Diagnostic Radiology 1
Dietitian, Registered 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 Cherokee Regional Medical Center

Is Cherokee Regional Medical Center a good hospital?

Cherokee Regional Medical Center has a CMS overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars. Of the 8 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on none and worse on 3. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Cherokee Regional Medical Center?

68% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 92 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Cherokee Regional Medical Center emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 14 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.