The Salem VA Health Care System received a four-star rating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 2026 Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating report, the facility announced Monday.
CMS bases its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings on five categories: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care. Ratings range from one to five stars, with higher scores indicating better performance.
“Receiving a four-star rating from CMS is a reflection of the dedication our entire team brings to caring for Veterans every day,” said Tammy Snyder, interim director of the Salem VA Health Care System. “This rating underscores our commitment to delivering safe, timely and high-quality care, and we are proud to contribute to VA’s continued nationwide excellence.”
Nationwide, 78% of VA hospitals that received a rating earned four or five stars in 2026. The share of VA hospitals receiving top ratings has grown in recent years — 67% in 2023, 58% in 2024, 77% in 2025 and 78% in 2026.
This marks the fourth consecutive year VA has outperformed non-VA hospitals and the second straight year no VA facility received a one-star rating.
The 2026 CMS results are part of a broader set of improvements the VA says it has made in recent years. The agency reports enrolling more than 125,000 new veterans in VA health care in 2026 and opening 35 new VA health care facilities since Jan. 20, 2025. The VA also says it reduced the backlog of veterans waiting for benefits by 70% during that period, after the backlog grew 24% under the prior administration.
In fiscal year 2025, the VA completed more than 82 million direct care appointments, a 4.1% increase from fiscal year 2024, and offered veterans more than 2.5 million appointments outside normal operating hours. The agency also permanently housed 51,936 homeless veterans in fiscal year 2025, the highest total in seven years.
Star ratings for individual facilities and the CMS methodology are available at medicare.gov.
