- What is HCAHPS?
- How does HCAPHS work?
- Why is this survey necessary?
- How does The Johns Hopkins Hospital survey its patients?
- How is HCAHPS different from other surveys, such as Press Ganey?
- How does The Johns Hopkins Hospital compare with other hospitals in the area?
- What is The Johns Hopkins Hospital doing to improve patient care?
- Where can I get more information about HCAHPS?
| Q. | What is HCAHPS? |
| A. | HCAHPS, which stands for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems, is a new government survey for measuring patient satisfaction at hospitals across the country. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are sponsoring the survey. Both agencies are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The categories focus on communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment, and instructions about medications and discharge. On the afternoon of March 28, the information will be released to the public on the Hospital Quality Alliance Web site, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. |
| Q. | How does HCAPHS work? |
| A. | Hospitals provide each eligible inpatient (those over 18 years of age who are not receiving psychiatry, rehabilitation and skilled nursing services) with a survey of 27 questions and other items relating to how often the patient perceived something to have occurred – usually on a scale of always, usually, sometimes and never – and how well the hospital met their needs. For example, patients are asked how often the doctors explained things in a way they could understand and how often their room and bathroom were kept clean. The results represent the percentage of patients who responded with “always.” The survey also measures patients’ overall rating of the hospital (on a scale of 0 to 10) and their willingness to recommend it. After adjusting certain factors, the government bundles patients’ responses into 10 categories and calculates composite scores. |
| Q. | Why is this survey necessary? |
| A. | HCAHPS provides a national standard for collecting and publicly reporting information about patients’ perspectives on hospital care. Since everyone must use the same survey, the HCAHPS data offers the consumer an “apples-to-apples” comparison of hospitals. Eventually, CMS intends to use the HCAHPS patient experience data to determine the level of funds it will reimburse hospitals for services they provide to their Medicare patients. Generally, hospitals having better clinical and patient satisfaction results will receive a higher reimbursement. |
| Q. | How does The Johns Hopkins Hospital survey its patients? |
| A. | The Hospital randomly selects about half of its inpatients and mails each a patient satisfaction survey within a few days of their discharge. The survey combines the 27 standardized HCAHPS questions and questions from our survey partner, Press Ganey Associates, specifically tailored to Hopkins about their hospital stay. The patient has six weeks to return the survey in a postage-page envelope. The HCAHPS responses are forwarded to the government, and Press Ganey calculates their responses as an additional measurement tool for Johns Hopkins. |
| Q. | How is HCAHPS different from other surveys, such as Press Ganey? |
| A. | The primary difference is the rating scale. The Hopkins Press Ganey survey measures patients’ perception of how well various aspects of their experience – such as admissions, tests and treatment, and meals – were handled, using a rating scale of very good, good, fair, poor and very poor. The HCAHPS measures how often patients perceived an aspect of their care was performed, generally using a scale of always, usually, sometimes, and never. |
| Q. | How does The Johns Hopkins Hospital compare with other hospitals in the area? |
| A. | A comparison of hospitals may be found at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, the Web site of the Hospital Quality Alliance. HQA is a national public-private collaboration of the American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, Association of Medical Colleges and other consumer, health care and government organizations created to encourage hospitals to voluntarily collect and report quality performance information. |
| Q. | What is The Johns Hopkins Hospital doing to improve patient care? |
| A. | To reinforce our commitment to quality patient care, we’ve added a third day to new employee orientation that focuses solely on service excellence. Employees’ job descriptions have been re-written to include the recently revised service standards of behavior. On the clinical side, the Hospital has implemented a patient- and family-centered care model in surgery and obstetrics. This model eliminates visiting hours for family members and creates family lounges, and also establishes service expectations and accountability for hospital staff and the unit. |
| Q. | Where can I get more information about HCAHPS? |
| A. | To view hospitals’ data, you may visit http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov or go to John Hopkins Medicine’s Quality and Innovations page at http://hopkinsmedicine.org/quality/patients/experience/measures.html. |
