insights
HCAHPS: Just the Facts
What is the HCAHPS survey?
The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS, pronounced h‑caps) survey is a national, standardized, and publicly reported survey completed by a random sample of adult patients between 48 hours and 6 weeks after discharge from a hospital.
The HCAHPS survey is issued to discharged patients via mail, telephone, and email. It contains 32 total questions, including 21 core questions that address critical aspects of the hospital experience. Those aspects include:
- Hospital environment cleanliness
- Hospital environment quietness
- Responsiveness of hospital staff
- Ease of communication with doctors and nurses
- Communication about pain
- Discharge information
- Overall impression of the hospital
Why was the HCAHPS survey created?
Before the creation of the survey, there was no standardized way to convert patients’ perceptions of their hospital stays into measurable data. HCAHPS has created a national standard of collecting and reporting data about the patient experience. This allows objective comparisons to be made between hospitals locally, regionally, and nationally.
The HCAHPS survey was designed for these purposes:
- To generate data about the patient experience that allows meaningful comparisons between hospitals for consumers.
- To publicly report survey results, holding hospitals accountable for their quality of care and giving them incentives and hard objectives for improvement.
How does the HCAHPS survey affect hospitals?
The results of HCAHPs surveys are used to determine a hospital’s patient satisfaction score. This score is not only publicly reported and visible to consumers, but is weighted in the decision to award or withhold 1% of reimbursement by Medicare to hospitals. Adherence to clinical performance guidelines is weighted by 70% in the decision to award or withhold funds, while HCAHPS scores are weighted by 30%.
How can hospitals improve their HCAHPS score?
Communication between providers, hospital staff, and patients is a major component of overall patient satisfaction. So is the cleanliness of the hospital environment. Tools like ES Optimizer, ES Service Optimizer, and Survey Optimizer are proven to improve environmental services performance, staff communication and patient satisfaction. Over 950 hospitals, medical centers, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities rely on Smart Facility Software to manage environmental services operations, service requests and survey data faster, more efficiently, and more effectively.
ES Optimizer can eliminate up to 12 hours per pay period of administrative time spent creating assignments, freeing up time and money that can be re-purposed towards ensuring excellent customer service. Using ES Optimizer is proven to make a difference in the cleanliness and efficiency of your facility. Using ES Optimizer can mark the difference between whether or not your facility receives full funding.
Read Part Two, HCAHPS and the Environmental Services Department.
Read Part Three, Role of EVS Software in Raising HCAHPS Scores.
Get started with Smart Facility Software Today! Click here and complete the form to get your free online demo and personalized tour of ES Optimizer.