Today, five major hospital associations released Modernizing the HCAHPS Survey: Recommendations from Patient Experience Leaders, a paper that explores how to update patient experience surveying to best improve patient care.
The HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a 32-question patient satisfaction survey required by CMS for all U.S. hospitals. Researchers found that response rates to the HCAHPS survey are falling and that after ten years in the field, the survey needs a refresh. Recommendations include the creation of a digital avenue for patients to respond to the survey (right now phone and mail are the only options), as well as shortening the survey. A full list of key findings and recommendations can be found below.
The paper was co-authored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), American Hospital Association (AHA), America's Essential Hospitals, and the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA).
“Great hospital care needs to be patient centered. Providing the best care, meeting patient expectations and keeping them comfortable and well informed is key,” said FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn. “Updating and improving the HCAHPS survey could have a major impact on improving care.”
“Being a nurse on the frontlines of providing care showed me why including the patient experience is crucial in order to have a complete quality picture,” said Robyn Begley, chief nursing officer of the American Hospital Association and chief executive officer of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. “America’s hospitals and health systems believe strongly that HCAHPS is a critical patient experience survey that has important benefits for both patients and the providers that care for them. But, as our report clearly lays out, it is time to re-think HCAHPS to ensure it is capturing information on critical aspects of care as it is delivered today and that patients can choose to provide their responses in the way that is most convenient for them.”
“Our hospitals work hard to overcome the social and economic challenges their vulnerable patients face and that affect the care experience – language barriers and low health literacy, for example,” said Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals. “This research shows more work is needed to ensure all hospitals ask the right questions in a culturally competent, easily understood way and without burdening patients or providers.”
“This important work demonstrates the commitment of hospitals in improving the experiences of care for patients. Our recommended approaches to modernizing the HCAHPS survey to reflect changes in health care delivery and advancements in technology will help ensure patients are empowered to provide valuable feedback,” said Janis Orlowski, MD, AAMC chief health care officer.
“The patient is at the center of all we do as Catholic healthcare. An updated HCAHPS survey will give us a better understanding of how patients experience the care they receive in our hospitals and how we can improve our care delivery,” said Sr. Mary Haddad, CHA President and CEO.
The associations interviewed hospital and health system patient experience leaders (PELs), the people who operate and manage the patient experience activities within their organizations. This allowed the authors to gather real world insights into the effectiveness of the HCAHPS. The paper examines in detail the current survey and the way it can be updated to better reflect the many changes and advancements that have happened in health care over the last 10 years.
The full report can be found by clicking here.
The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members are all 154 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC serves the leaders of America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and their more than 173,000 full-time faculty members, 89,000 medical students, 129,000 resident physicians, and more than 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.