54 ◾ Healthcare Value Proposition
the patient experience, they must put patients first and at the center of everything they do. Because patients do not fully understand the clinical aspects of their care, they will continue to measure their experience based on their own proxy measures, like being treated respectfully, being listened to, receiving a good explanation, etc.
Measuring Patient Experience: HCAHPS Surveys The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), along with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), developed the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) Survey, also known as Hospital CAHPS®, to provide a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives of hospital care. HCAHPS is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care. The HCAHPS Survey (pronounced “H-caps”) is a 32-item instrument and data collection method for measuring patients’ perceptions of their hospital experience. HCAHPS allows valid comparisons across hospitals—locally, regionally, and nationally. The survey was nationally implemented in 2006, and public reporting of hospital scores began in 2008. Since 2012, HCAHPS scores have played a role in hospital payment through the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program. The original HCAHPS Survey captures the patient’s experience of communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medicines, cleanliness and quietness of the hospital, discharge information, transition to post-hospital care, and the overall rating of the hospital. The survey is administered between two and forty-two days after discharge to a random sample of adult patients. There are four approved modes of administration: mail, telephone, mixed (mail with telephone follow-up), and interactive voice response. The survey is officially available in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, and Portuguese translations. About 4,000 hospitals participate in HCAHPS, and over three million patients complete the survey each year. The HCAHPS survey is 32 questions in length—21 substantive items that encompass critical aspects of the hospital experience, four screening questions to skip patients to appropriate questions, and seven demographic items for adjusting the mix of patients across hospitals for analytical purposes.
