Ray County Memorial Hospital has received a five-star rating on the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating scale. “We are very proud of our accomplishment,” hospital CEO Earl Sheehy said. The rating “shows the community that we are more than a band aid station,” Sheehy added laughingly. According to the CMS.gov website, the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating system examines five areas of quality, with hospitals receiving a star rating for each area that meets the rating criteria. The five areas of quality are timeliness and effectiveness of care, readmission, safety issues, patients’ experiences and patient mortality, the website states. “The methodology used to calculate Overall Star Ratings involves multiple steps to select, standardize, and calculate scores based on Care Compare measures,” the CMS website states. The website also lists these steps as those used to create star ratings: • “Selection and standardization of…