USCareCheck

CMS certification 171348

Norton County Hospital

102 E Holme Street, Norton, KS 67654

Critical Access Hospitals Emergency services

CMS does not publish an overall star rating for Norton County Hospital. 75% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. Of the 4 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on 1 and worse on none. Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 57 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 75% US average 71%
Patient survey rating Not rated 30 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 0 worse 1 better of 4 measures CMS could compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 30 completed surveys, 27% 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
75%
KS 78% · US 71%
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
60%
KS 79% · US 72%
Nurses always communicated well
72%
KS 83% · US 80%
Doctors always communicated well
80%
KS 84% · US 80%
Staff always explained new medicines
72%
KS 66% · US 62%
Given information about recovering at home
92%
KS 89% · US 86%
Room was always clean
88%
KS 80% · US 74%
Always quiet at night
56%
KS 67% · US 60%

This hospital Kansas 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. These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.

Measure This hospital KS US
Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 255 visits sampled 1 h 57 min 2 h 5 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 15 visits sampled 2 h 53 min 3 h 10 min 4 h 17 min

How Norton County 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
Norton County HospitalThis hospitalNot rated75%1 h 57 min1 better
Phillips County HospitalSame ZIP area · PhillipsburgNot rated72%1 h 56 minNo different
Rooks County Health CenterSame ZIP area · PlainvilleNot rated81%1 h 35 min1 better
Russell Regional HospitalSame ZIP area · Russell3/575%1 h 14 minNo different
Graham County HospitalSame ZIP area · Hill CityNot rated86%2 h 24 minNo different
Hays Medical CenterSame ZIP area · Hays3/566%1 h 52 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 48 cases Too few cases 5% 3.9%
Pneumonia 34 cases Too few cases 18.7% 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.

Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 28 cases Too few cases -48.8 days per 100 —

13 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 Norton County Hospital

Is Norton County Hospital a good hospital?

CMS does not publish an overall star rating for Norton County Hospital. Of the 4 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on 1 and worse on none. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Norton County Hospital?

75% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 30 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Norton County Hospital emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 57 min in its emergency department before leaving (US median 2 h 42 min). These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.