The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is releasing the results of its first national hospital patient satisfaction survey in late March. The results of the survey, known as HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers), will be posted on CMS's Hospital Compare Web site, at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, where they will be available to consumers.
The HCAHPS survey is the first standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients' perspectives on hospital care. The survey questions address care from nurses and doctors (including courteous and respectful treatment, listening carefully, giving adequate explanations, and giving prompt assistance when requested), the hospital environment (cleanliness and quiet), specific experiences at the hospital (pain management, assistance getting to the bathroom, managing new medications), and post-discharge issues. CMS will report the number of completed surveys and the response rate for each participating hospital, as well as patient ratings of each hospital.
GNYHA has been working actively with hospitals to help them prepare for the HCAHPS survey. Through the GNYHA Quality Coach Fellowship program, frontline line health care workers were taught to collaborate with their co-workers on strategies to improve patient satisfaction. GNYHA has also been encouraging hospitals to share copies of the HCAHPS survey with all staff and has been providing ongoing education and updates to members on quality and patient satisfaction public reporting initiatives.
Background: HCAHPS is a component of CMS's Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) initiative, which was developed to provide consumers with quality of care information so they could make more informed decisions about their health care, while encouraging hospitals and clinicians to improve the quality of inpatient care. All of the information gathered through the initiative about hospital quality of care is available to consumers on the Hospital Compare Web site.
As of October 2007, hospitals that do not participate in the RHQDAPU program, or that fail to report the data in an accurate and timely manner to CMS, are subject to a 2% reduction in their Medicare market basket adjustment. To date, the data that have been reported on the Hospital Compare Web site have been limited to clinical performance measures for heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia. The HCAHPS data reported in March will reflect patient satisfaction for discharges occurring from October 2006 through June 2007. Moving forward, as part of the RHQDAPU, hospitals are expected to survey 300 patients per quarter, representing discharges from each of the months in that quarter.