Choosing a hospital on the Emerald Coast: what Medicare’s Care Compare shows
Medicare’s Care Compare lists 11 acute care hospitals with emergency rooms in Okaloosa, Walton, Santa Rosa and Bay counties, and their overall star ratings range from two to five stars. In the July 2026 data release (published Aug. 13, 2026, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS), HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital in Niceville is the only Emerald Coast hospital with five stars. Three hospitals have no overall rating: North Walton Doctors Hospital, Jay Hospital and the 96th Medical Group at Eglin Air Force Base.
What do Care Compare’s hospital star ratings mean?
The overall star rating rolls a hospital’s publicly reported quality measures into one score from one to five stars, with five the highest. The CMS Hospital Downloadable Database Dictionary, July 2026 edition, lists five measure groups behind it:
- Mortality: deaths after hospital care for common conditions
- Safety of care: infections and complications acquired in the hospital
- Readmission: patients who return to a hospital soon after discharge
- Patient experience: survey answers from patients about nurses, doctors, cleanliness and discharge information
- Timely and effective care: how often the hospital follows recommended steps of care
The same dictionary notes that most hospitals display three stars. A hospital with too few reported measures gets “Not Available,” which says nothing about quality either way.
How do Emerald Coast hospitals rate on Care Compare?
This table comes from CMS’s Hospital General Information dataset, released Aug. 13, 2026, and checked on Oct. 30, 2026. “Better” and “worse” count the measures in each group where the hospital was better or worse than the national rate; all other measures were no different.
| Hospital | City | County | Overall stars | Mortality (better/worse) | Safety (better/worse) | Readmission (better/worse) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital | Niceville | Okaloosa | 5 | 1 / 0 | 1 / 0 | 0 / 1 |
| HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital | Fort Walton Beach | Okaloosa | 3 | 1 / 0 | 1 / 0 | 0 / 4 |
| North Okaloosa Medical Center | Crestview | Okaloosa | 3 | 0 / 0 | 1 / 0 | 1 / 1 |
| 96th Medical Group (Department of Defense) | Eglin AFB | Okaloosa | Not available | — | — | — |
| Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast | Miramar Beach | Walton | 3 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
| North Walton Doctors Hospital | DeFuniak Springs | Walton | Not available | — | — | — |
| Santa Rosa Medical Center | Milton | Santa Rosa | 4 | 0 / 0 | 1 / 0 | 0 / 1 |
| Gulf Breeze Hospital | Gulf Breeze | Santa Rosa | 4 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 1 / 1 |
| Jay Hospital (critical access) | Jay | Santa Rosa | Not available | 0 / 0 | — | 0 / 0 |
| Ascension Sacred Heart Bay | Panama City | Bay | 3 | 0 / 0 | 1 / 0 | 1 / 0 |
| HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital | Panama City | Bay | 2 | 0 / 0 | 1 / 0 | 1 / 0 |
A tally of the table shows that the four-star and five-star hospitals are in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, and that HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital has the most readmission measures worse than the national rate, with four. Walton County‘s only rated hospital, Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast, has one mortality measure worse than the national rate.
Which Emerald Coast hospitals have an emergency room?
All 11 hospitals in the table list emergency services in the CMS dataset. The phone numbers below are the main lines CMS lists for each hospital:
| Hospital | Address | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital | 2190 Highway 85 N., Niceville | (850) 678-4131 |
| HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital | 1000 Mar-Walt Drive, Fort Walton Beach | (850) 862-1111 |
| North Okaloosa Medical Center | 151 Redstone Ave. SE, Crestview | (850) 689-8100 |
| Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast | 7800 U.S. 98 W., Miramar Beach | (850) 278-3600 |
| North Walton Doctors Hospital | 4413 U.S. 331 S., DeFuniak Springs | (850) 920-2065 |
| Santa Rosa Medical Center | 6002 Berryhill Road, Milton | (850) 626-7762 |
| Gulf Breeze Hospital | 1110 Gulf Breeze Pkwy., Gulf Breeze | (850) 934-2000 |
| Jay Hospital | 14114 Alabama St., Jay | (850) 675-4532 |
| Ascension Sacred Heart Bay | 615 N. Bonita Ave., Panama City | (850) 769-1511 |
| HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital | 449 W. 23rd St., Panama City | (850) 747-7926 |
In an emergency, call 911 and go to the nearest emergency room. Star ratings are for planned care, not for deciding where an ambulance goes.
How should a retiree use the star ratings?
Use the ratings to ask better questions, not to pick a hospital by stars alone. Care Compare measures are averages across thousands of patients, and a hospital can rate well overall and still be weaker in the one service you need. Three steps help:
- Open the hospital on Medicare’s Care Compare and look at the measure group closest to your care, such as readmissions after hip or knee replacement.
- Check whether your Medicare Advantage plan has the hospital in its network before a planned surgery, because plan networks differ.
- Ask your doctor where they have admitting privileges.
The 96th Medical Group at Eglin Air Force Base appears in the CMS dataset as a Department of Defense hospital, with no star rating and no measure counts.
When will the ratings change?
CMS updates the Hospital General Information dataset with each Care Compare publication; the version used here was modified on July 22, 2026, and released on Aug. 13, 2026. Ratings can move up or down with each refresh as new measure periods are added.
This story is information, not tax, legal or medical advice. Talk to your doctor before choosing where to have planned care.
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Questions and answers
- What is the best rated hospital on the Emerald Coast on Medicare Care Compare?
- In CMS's Aug. 13, 2026, release, HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital in Niceville, in Okaloosa County, is the only Emerald Coast hospital with five overall stars. Santa Rosa Medical Center in Milton and Gulf Breeze Hospital have four.
- What does a hospital star rating on Care Compare mean?
- It combines a hospital's reported measures on mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care into one to five stars, according to CMS. Most hospitals get three stars.
- Why does a hospital have no star rating on Care Compare?
- A hospital shows Not Available when it reports too few measures to calculate a rating. Small critical access hospitals, such as Jay Hospital, and military hospitals, such as the 96th Medical Group at Eglin Air Force Base, often have no overall rating.
- How many hospitals are in Walton County, Florida?
- Care Compare lists two acute care hospitals with emergency rooms in Walton County as of the Aug. 13, 2026, release: Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach (three stars) and North Walton Doctors Hospital in DeFuniak Springs (no rating).