Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems

Overview:

• A standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives on hospital care
• Contains 18 patient perspectives on care and patient rating items that encompass eight key topics:
  1. communication with doctors
  2. communication with nurses
  3. responsiveness of hospital staff
  4. pain management
  5. communication about medicines
  6. discharge information
  7. cleanliness of the hospital environment
  8. quietness of the hospital environment.
• The survey also includes four screening questions and five demographic items, which are used for adjusting the mix of patients across hospitals and for analytical purposes.
• The survey is 27 questions in length.
• Hospitals voluntarily do HCAHPS survey via paper, telephone or Interactive Voice Response.
• Beginning in 2002, CMS partnered with AHRQ to develop and test the HCAHPS survey
• In May 2005, NQF an organization established to standardize health care quality measurement and reporting, formally endorsed the CAHPS® Hospital Survey
• The number of hospitals that publicly report HCAHPS results has increased from 2,521 in March 2008 to 3,774 in July 2010.
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