CMS certification 431307
Sanford Clear Lake Medical Center
701 Third Avenue South, Clear Lake, SD 57226
CMS does not publish an overall star rating for Sanford Clear Lake Medical Center. Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 33 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.
What patients said
Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: Oct 2024 – Sep 2025.
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 | SD | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 233 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min | 1 h 33 min | 1 h 55 min | 2 h 42 min |
| Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 18 visits sampled | 2 h 28 min | 2 h 27 min | 4 h 17 min |
| Left before being seen Lower is better · 506 patients | 0% | 1% | 2% |
How Sanford Clear Lake 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanford Clear Lake Medical CenterThis hospital | Not rated | — | 1 h 33 min | — |
| Prairie Lakes Healthcare System, INCSame ZIP area · Watertown | 3/5 | 63% | 1 h 57 min | 1 worse |
| Milbank Area Hospital/Avera HealthSame ZIP area · Milbank | Not rated | 76% | 2 h 6 min | No different |
| Coteau Des Prairies Health Care SystemSame ZIP area · Sisseton | 4/5 | 50% | 44 min | No different |
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.
Not reported for this hospital
CMS had too few cases here to publish results for deaths, complications, infections caught in the hospital, readmissions and return visits. 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 Sanford Clear Lake Medical Center
How long is the wait in the Sanford Clear Lake Medical Center emergency room?
Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 33 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.