Thursday, May 14, 2026

Idaho Hospitals with Five-Star CMS Patient Survey Ratings

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) conducts periodic surveys of adult patients who recently received inpatient care at a hospital that services Medicaid and Medicare plan participants.  The purpose of these surveys is to measure the degree of satisfaction patients had with their recent inpatient hospital experience. The CMS ratings methodology involves combining patient questionnaire responses into a uniform patient satisfaction rating on a 1 to 5-star scale, with five stars being the scale's best score.  As of May 11, 2026, only four hospitals in Idaho earned five-stars on CMS patient surveys.  From CMS patient satisfaction surveys, listed alphabetically here are the four hospitals in Idaho that rated as five-stars for patient experience were:

Idaho Hospitals with Five-Star CMS Patient Survey Ratings

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Nursing Assistant Pay in the Rocky Mountain Region

Over 1,388,000 nursing assistants were employed as of May 2024 in the United States according to data released recently by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  More than 48,000 of the nation's nursing assistants were employed in the five-state Rocky Mountain region of the country.  A further examination of May 2024 BLS data provides the following details about nursing assistant pay in the Rocky Mountain region:

Nursing Assistant Pay in the Rocky Mountain Region

Nursing Assistant Pay in the Rocky Mountain Region

State # Employed Annual Mean Wages Wage Rank*
CO 20,880 $45,480 10th
ID 7,340 $37,74040th
MT 4,800 $42,02023rd
UT 12,350 $39,240 32nd
WY 2,680 $41,040 25th
U.S. 1,388,510 $41,173 -------

(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on May 13, 2026