USCareCheck

CMS certification 161364

Jefferson County Health Center

2000 S Main, Fairfield, IA 52556

Critical Access Hospitals Emergency services

Jefferson County Health Center has a CMS overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars. 75% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. Of the 9 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on none and worse on 2. Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 58 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 75% US average 71%
Patient survey rating 4/5 123 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 2 worse 0 better of 9 measures CMS could compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 123 completed surveys, 36% response rate, Oct 2024 – Sep 2025.

Would definitely recommend the hospital
75%
IA 76% · US 71% · 4 of 5 stars
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
80%
IA 78% · US 72% · 4 of 5 stars
Nurses always communicated well
82%
IA 83% · US 80% · 4 of 5 stars
Doctors always communicated well
75%
IA 82% · US 80% · 2 of 5 stars
Staff always explained new medicines
64%
IA 65% · US 62% · 3 of 5 stars
Given information about recovering at home
90%
IA 89% · US 86% · 4 of 5 stars
Room was always clean
86%
IA 78% · US 74% · 5 of 5 stars
Always quiet at night
68%
IA 65% · US 60% · 4 of 5 stars

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 · 453 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 1 h 58 min 2 h 3 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 19 visits sampled 3 h 6 min 3 h 37 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 7,996 patients 1% 3% 2%
Stroke symptoms: brain scan read within 45 minutes Higher is better · 12 patients 50% 64% 69%
Severe sepsis and septic shock: all recommended care given Higher is better · 27 patients 74% 63% 65%

How Jefferson County Health 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
Jefferson County Health CenterThis hospital2/575%1 h 58 min2 worse
Van Buren County HospitalSame ZIP area · KeosauquaNot rated79%2 h 26 minNo different
Mercyone Centerville Medical CenterSame ZIP area · CentervilleNot rated77%2 h 10 min1 better
Davis County HospitalSame ZIP area · BloomfieldNot rated91%1 h 36 minNo different
Mahaska Health PartnershipSame ZIP area · Oskaloosa4/579%2 h 21 min1 better
Monroe County HospitalSame ZIP area · AlbiaNot rated93%2 h 3 min1 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 159 cases Too few cases 4.7% 3.9%
Heart failure 44 cases Too few cases 15.4% 11.1%
Pneumonia 55 cases Too few cases 17.5% 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.

2 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Readmitted after heart failure 30 cases Too few cases 21.5% 21.3%
Readmitted after pneumonia 45 cases Too few cases 18% 17.3%
Days back in hospital after heart failure 45 cases Too few cases 22 days per 100 —
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 54 cases Too few cases 29.3 days per 100 —
Hospital admissions during outpatient chemotherapy 39 cases No different 11.2 per 100 likely 7.7 per 100 – 15.7 per 100 10.7 per 100
ER visits during outpatient chemotherapy 39 cases No different 5.6 per 100 likely 3.6 per 100 – 8.4 per 100 5.4 per 100

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
Family Medicine 5
Family 4
Physical Therapist 4
Physical Therapy Assistant 4
Medical 2
Pharmacist 2
Speech-Language Pathologist 2
Dietitian, Registered 1
Emergency 1
Medical Oncology 1
Neurology 1
Nurse Practitioner 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 Jefferson County Health Center

Is Jefferson County Health Center a good hospital?

Jefferson County Health Center has a CMS overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars. Of the 9 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on none and worse on 2. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Jefferson County Health Center?

75% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 123 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Jefferson County Health Center emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 58 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.