Thursday, February 5, 2026

Illinois Hospitals with Five-Star CMS Patient Survey Ratings

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) periodically conducts patient surveys to measure adult patient perspectives on recent hospital stays at hospitals that treat Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. The methodology used by CMS involves gathering patient responses to questions about their recent inpatient hospital stays, then consolidating that information into a single, all-encompassing patient satisfaction rating on a 1 to 5-star scale, with five stars being the best score on the scale.  As of February 2, 2026, only seven Illinois hospitals earned a five-star patient survey rating.  Interestingly, only one hospital in the state - Crawford Memorial in Robinson - that rated five-stars for patient satisfaction also rated as a Five-Star Quality Hospital in separate CMS studies that focused on the quality of care delivered.  From CMS patient satisfaction surveys, these were the seven hospitals in Illinois that rated as five-stars for patient experience (alphabetically listed):

Illinois Hospitals with Five-Star CMS Patient Survey Ratings

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Nursing Assistant Pay in the Great Lakes Region

There were over 1,388,000 nursing assistants employed in the USA according to recently published May 2024 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Approximately 226,000 of those employed as nursing assistants lived in the five-state Great Lakes region of the country.  Annual mean wages for nursing assistants in the region ran slightly below the national average, except in Illinois and Wisconsin.  BLS data from May 2024 reveals the following about nursing assistant pay in the Great Lakes region of the U.S.:

Nursing Assistant Pay in the Great Lakes Region


Nursing Assistant Pay in the Great Lakes Region

State # Employed Annual Mean Wages Wage Rank*
IL 64,660 $43,950 16th
IN 31,240 $38,610 33rd
MI 40,230 $40,210 28th
OH 62,360 $39,840 31st
WI 27,480 $43,050 20th
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 February 3, 2026