BERGEN COUNTY, N.J. — Bergen County hospitals turned in a mixed set of results in the latest federal patient surveys, with Valley Hospital tying for the highest patient-experience rating in New Jersey and both Hackensack University Medical Center and Holy Name Medical Center earning five stars in the federal government’s overall hospital rating.
The latest data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services covers four consecutive quarters of patient surveys from Oct. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2025 and was analyzed by NJ.com.
Valley Hospital in Paramus tied with Deborah Heart and Lung Center for the highest average patient-experience rating in New Jersey, at 3.8 out of five stars. Valley also received a four-star overall hospital rating.
Hackensack University Medical Center and Holy Name Medical Center were among just seven New Jersey hospitals to receive a five-star overall hospital rating.
The other five were Chilton Medical Center, Hackensack Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical Center, Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital-Warren Campus.
But the overall rating and patient-experience rating are not the same thing.
CMS calculates its overall hospital rating using five measures of performance: safety of care, readmission rates, patient experience, timeliness of care and mortality rates.
The patient-experience rating is based on surveys of recently discharged patients.
That distinction means a hospital can receive the highest possible overall CMS rating while receiving a lower rating from patients about their experience.
Among the seven hospitals with five-star overall ratings, only St. Luke’s had a patient-experience rating of at least 3.5 stars.
Englewood Hospital and Bergen New Bridge Medical Center were also among the Bergen County hospitals covered by the data.
The Bergen results come against a difficult statewide backdrop.
New Jersey ranked second from the bottom nationally for patient experience, ahead of only Delaware. The state’s 64 hospitals averaged 2.7 out of five stars in patient experience.
Not a single New Jersey hospital received a perfect five-star patient-experience rating.
Twenty-eight hospitals had patient ratings below the statewide 2.7 average.
Six facilities were barely above the lowest possible one-star rating: CareWell Health Medical Center at 1.3, Capital Health Regional Medical Center at 1.5, Bayonne Medical Center at 1.7, University Hospital at 1.7, Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital at 1.8 and Hoboken University Medical Center at 1.9.
NJ.com’s analysis found that Valley’s 3.8 rating was the highest in the state, tied with Deborah.
The numbers also come with an important caveat.
A low patient-experience score does not necessarily mean patients received poor clinical care.
Adelisa Perez-Hudgins, vice president of quality for the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, told NJ.com that a low patient-experience score by itself does not mean patients received poor clinical care. She said patients can use the ratings to help inform decisions but should not view them in isolation.
Different hospital-rating organizations also measure different things. U.S. News & World Report, Fortune and The Leapfrog Group each use their own methodologies and focus on different aspects of hospital performance.
For Bergen County patients, the latest CMS data provides another way to compare the hospitals in their backyard.
And the results show that overall hospital quality ratings and what patients say about their experience can be two very different measures.
