USCareCheck

CMS certification 220177

Nantucket Cottage Hospital

57 Prospect Street, Nantucket, MA 02554

Acute Care Hospitals Emergency services Birthing-friendly

Nantucket Cottage Hospital has a CMS overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. 82% 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 1. Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 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 82% US average 71%
Patient survey rating Not rated 83 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 1 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: 83 completed surveys, 22% 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
82%
MA 70% · US 71%
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
85%
MA 68% · US 72%
Nurses always communicated well
82%
MA 79% · US 80%
Doctors always communicated well
85%
MA 79% · US 80%
Staff always explained new medicines
70%
MA 61% · US 62%
Given information about recovering at home
84%
MA 87% · US 86%
Room was always clean
80%
MA 70% · US 74%
Always quiet at night
75%
MA 48% · US 60%

This hospital Massachusetts 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 MA US
Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 375 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 2 h 3 h 34 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 22 visits sampled 6 h 21 min 5 h 38 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 10,716 patients 0% 4% 2%
Severe sepsis and septic shock: all recommended care given Higher is better · 19 patients 58% 56% 65%

How Nantucket Cottage 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
Nantucket Cottage HospitalThis hospital3/582%2 h1 worse
Martha's Vineyard Hospital INCSame ZIP area · Oak Bluffs4/578%2 h 37 min2 worse
Falmouth HospitalSame ZIP area · Falmouth4/571%2 h 40 min1 better 1 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 144 cases Too few cases 4% 3.9%
Heart failure 34 cases Too few cases 11.6% 11.1%
Pneumonia 65 cases Too few cases 12.9% 15.2%

4 more measures had too few cases here to report.

Complications

How often patients had serious complications, most of them after surgery, adjusted for how sick they were. Lower is better. Data from Jul 2022 – Jun 2024.

3 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Pressure ulcers (bed sores) 351 cases No different 0.57 per 1,000 likely 0 per 1,000 – 1.86 per 1,000 0.63 per 1,000
Collapsed lung caused by a procedure 495 cases No different 0.21 per 1,000 likely 0 per 1,000 – 0.44 per 1,000 0.21 per 1,000
Broken bones from falls in the hospital 471 cases No different 0.27 per 1,000 likely 0.05 per 1,000 – 0.49 per 1,000 0.27 per 1,000

10 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.

4 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Readmitted after heart failure 30 cases Too few cases 21.9% 21.3%
Readmitted after pneumonia 45 cases Too few cases 17.8% 17.3%
Days back in hospital after heart failure 45 cases Too few cases 95.9 days per 100 —
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 64 cases Too few cases 27.5 days per 100 —
Unplanned visits after an outpatient colonoscopy 414 cases No different 12.5 per 1,000 likely 9.3 per 1,000 – 16.6 per 1,000 13 per 1,000
Hospital admissions during outpatient chemotherapy 45 cases No different 10.3 per 100 likely 7.1 per 100 – 14.8 per 100 10.7 per 100
ER visits during outpatient chemotherapy 45 cases No different 6.2 per 100 likely 4 per 100 – 9.5 per 100 5.4 per 100
Unplanned visits after outpatient surgery 36 cases No different 1 likely 0.6 – 1.4 —

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 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

45 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 9
Emergency Medicine 6
Physician Assistant 5
Family Medicine 4
Adult Health 3
Dietitian, Registered 2
Internal Medicine 2
Nurse Anesthetist, Certified Registered 2
Physical Therapist 2
Speech-Language Pathologist 2
Surgery 2
Medical 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 Nantucket Cottage Hospital

Is Nantucket Cottage Hospital a good hospital?

Nantucket Cottage Hospital has a CMS overall rating of 3 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 1. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Nantucket Cottage Hospital?

82% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 83 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 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.