CMS certification 451365
Ascension Seton Highland Lakes
Highway 281 South, Burnet, TX 78611
Ascension Seton Highland Lakes has a CMS overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Of the 10 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 56 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 | TX | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 339 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min | 1 h 56 min | 2 h 25 min | 2 h 42 min |
| Left before being seen Lower is better · 2,642 patients | 1% | 1% | 2% |
How Ascension Seton Highland Lakes 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascension Seton Highland LakesThis hospital | 5/5 | — | 1 h 56 min | 1 better |
| Baylor Scott & White Medical Center - Marble FallsSame county · Marble Falls | 4/5 | 79% | 2 h 40 min | 1 better |
| Baylor Scott & White Medical Center - BudaSame ZIP area · Buda | Not rated | 88% | 1 h 46 min | No different |
| Ascension Seton Cedar ParkSame ZIP area · Cedar Park | 3/5 | 61% | 2 h 22 min | 1 better 1 worse |
| Hill Country Memorial HospitalSame ZIP area · Fredericksburg | 4/5 | 72% | 2 h 36 min | 2 better |
| Memorial HospitalSame ZIP area · Gonzales | Not rated | 70% | 1 h 10 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.
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 215 cases | Too few cases | 3.9% | 3.9% |
| Heart failure 34 cases | Too few cases | 9.6% | 11.1% |
| Pneumonia 51 cases | Too few cases | 12.5% | 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.
| Measure | CMS comparison | This hospital | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Readmitted after heart failure 46 cases | Too few cases | 21.2% | 21.3% |
| Readmitted after pneumonia 72 cases | Too few cases | 16.8% | 17.3% |
| Days back in hospital after heart failure 36 cases | Too few cases | -32.4 days per 100 | — |
| Days back in hospital after pneumonia 56 cases | Too few cases | -2.9 days per 100 | — |
| Unplanned visits after an outpatient colonoscopy 389 cases | No different | 13.5 per 1,000 likely 10.2 per 1,000 – 18.2 per 1,000 | 13 per 1,000 |
| Unplanned visits after outpatient surgery 107 cases | No different | 1.1 likely 0.8 – 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.
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 Ascension Seton Highland Lakes
Is Ascension Seton Highland Lakes a good hospital?
Ascension Seton Highland Lakes has a CMS overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Of the 10 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.
How long is the wait in the Ascension Seton Highland Lakes emergency room?
Emergency patients spend a median of 1 h 56 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.