Basic Principles of HCAHPS

The HCAHPS, or Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems is a survey administered nationally. It questions individuals about their perspective on hospital care, and the results of the survey are used to compare hospital care experiences all over the United States. The hospitals take this information and use it to improve healthcare quality throughout the country.

What The Survey Contains
Questions in this survey include, how well the hospital staff communicated with the patient during their stay, measures the responsiveness of the staff to individual medical needs, how quiet and clean the hospital was, and more.

Results
The results of this survey help the hospitals that were rated well to receive incentive payments. One reason that this survey came about is that the government is trying to use it to improve the quality of healthcare for U.S. residents. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, there is a link between the results of this survey and the outcome of medical procedures performed at clinics.

The HCAHPS survey performance analysis has led to many hospitals calling patients at home within 24-72 hours after being discharged from the hospital. Extending the reach of care givers into post-discharge support has some positive and negative consequences.

There are pros and cons to using satisfaction focused telephone follow-up:

Pros

Post-discharge follow up enhances the satisfaction of patients, and this improves hospital ratings performance. This also means that the hospitals benefit from more referrals from patients, and an elevated reputation and Brand in the community. Hospitals, in turn, have the opportunity to maintain financial performance targets, allowing them to sustain better care delivery.  Patients also tend to be more compliant with follow-up care from whoever treated them in the hospital. This follow-up phone call also gives the hospital a chance to answer any questions the patient may have since discharge.

Cons
It is not always possible for hospital staff to call every patient after they have been discharged. These calls are made from a call center, which may not be open at a convenient time to contact the patients. Another drawback is that this creates more work for the hospital staff. Substantial investments in time, talent, and process are required to implement post-discharge follow-up.

HCAHPS has affected the healthcare industry greatly. Hospitals strive to find ways to meet the scoring requirements for this survey. All together, the investments in new technologies, surgical procedures and different care delivery environments aim to improve patient care and this is ultimately reflected in a standardized survey score.

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