Hospital Consumer Assessment Of Healthcare Providers And Systems

Survey of patient’s experiences is important source of information of the quality of health care provided by the particular hospital, which allows patients to compare the hospitals in the area. The HCAHPS star rating of Gulf Coast Hospital and Bay Medical Center is two stars, while Sacred Heart Hospital is rated with four stars on the excellence of care. The outliner indicators for Gulf Coast Medical Center in the survey of patients’ experiences on the question: “How often did patients receive help quickly from the hospital staff?” shows that 74% patients pick the answer “always communicated well”, that is slightly lower than national average with 79%. The survey question “How often were the patients’ rooms and bathrooms kept clean” only 61% of the patients pick that their bathroom and room were “always clean” that is much lower than the national average 74% and only 47% of the patients understood the care that was provided when they were

Reimbursement under VBP involves both clinical and patient satisfaction targets. In order to measure the patient satisfaction aspect, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey is conducted by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. This external report contains useful information regarding the patients’ perspectives of hospital care, and can be compared at a local, regional, and national level. Individual health care institutions can then use this data to determine quality areas in need of improvement. Overall, there is an emphasis on the healthcare institution’s ability to deliver “patient centered” care.

Review CCHC’s physician visits by age category to ensure that, as members age, they are seeking the appropriate level of care

When reviewing the HCAHPS survey results it is important to look at the demographic of the community the organizations service area. The HCAHPS survey is distributed to a random sample of adult patients discharged from the hospital. The survey has twenty-seven questions, categorized by ten domains. The domains address communication, pain control, cleanliness of the rooms, an overall hospital rating, and if patients would recommend the hospital. Even though it is well established that patient-centered organizational change has the most influence on HCAHPS scores, there is evidence that ethnicity and lower socioeconomic standing lowers HCAHPS scores and the patient’s perception of care (Elliott et al., 2015).

At UCF Community Care Center, our main focus and concern is our patients. Our main goal is to ensure that each and every one of our patients is satisfied upon leaving our office. “Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring the quality in health care. Patient satisfaction affects clinical outcomes, patient retention, and medical malpractice claims. It affects the timely, efficient, and patient-centered delivery of quality health care” (Prakash, 2010).

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a standardized survey that is used to measure the patients’ perspective of the hospital and the care provided. HCAHPS assess each hospital on approximately 9 main factors: communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medications, discharge information, care transition, overall environment of the hospital, and rating and recommendation. By analyzing the HCAHPS for any given factor, many inferences can be made as well as allowing the ability to compare multiple hospitals.

The survey will allow the patient to give a feedback during hospitalization such as how well the communication between nurses and patient, doctors to patient, pain management, and the cleanliness and quietness the environment. Then the HCAHPS will give a rating by using stars; the more star the better of the quality. However, consumers need to consider other aspects than just the star ranking, because

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems is a series of patient surveys required by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for all hospitals rating health care experiences in the United States. “The intent of the HCAHPS is to provide a standardized 32-item survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients perspectives on hospital care.” (HCAHPS Hospital Survey) Until the HCAHPS, there were no common metrics and no national standards for collecting and reporting information about patient experience of care. Since 2008, HCAHPS has allowed valid comparisons made across hospitals locally, regionally and nationally.

In recent years, there has been a marked change in the inpatient hospital experience. No longer are hospitals reimbursed solely as a fee-for-service from insurance companies. There has been a move to a pay-for-performance model (Knudson, 2013, C8). Hospitals are no longer being reimbursed for the additional treatment cost of “never events” such as injuries from falls, infections from urinary catheters, and pressure ulcers that are acquired during a patient’s stay (Agency for Healthcare Administration, 2012). The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey is utilized to ensure accountability. Patients are surveyed after their discharge to assess how well hospital staff is meeting core measures, such as pain control, communication with nurses and staff, and how quickly needs were addressed (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2013).

This was a very large scale study that provided important insight about the outcomes associated with effective implementation of PCMH-like model. However, generalization of the findings is limited because the study only assessed clinics within the VHA system. Other limitations included the presence of personal biases in self-reports, and low survey response rates. Nevertheless, the study supports that effective implementation of PCMH has positive implications on patient satisfaction, quality

The source of data that is commonly used in the field of healthcare management are surveys about hospital experience answered by adult inpatients, excluding psychiatric patients. This set of data is referred to as HCAHPS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems). It is the first national, standardized, publicly reported, survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care. HCAHPS Surveys are funded and overseen by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a government agency that is a part of the federal department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The AHRQ does not administer the surveys. Surveys must be administered by a qualified vendor. Vendors become certified by Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). Three broad goals shape the HCAHPS Survey. First, the survey is designed to produce comparable data on patients' perspectives of care that allows objective and meaningful comparisons among hospitals on topics that are important to consumers. Second, public reporting of the survey results is designed to create incentives for hospitals to improve quality of care. Third, public reporting serves to enhance public accountability in health care by increasing transparency (CMS, 2015).

Surveys are solid ways of receiving feedback from customers to gauge performance and tailor to new trends and fashions. In the medical industry this method is sometimes overlooked but it shouldn't. Gamble (2012) suggested that " when designed and administered appropriately, patient experience surveys provide robust measures of quality, and efforts to assess patient experiences should be redoubled. " Fitzpatrick (1991) echoed these sentiments when stated

Hospitals must come up with creative ways to involve patients in surveys. Another information which could be included is, were the expectations of the patient met by the hospital and what would be one thing the patient wants to improve.

Figure 2 provides an example of questions addressed, in order to assess patients’ healthcare experience through CAHPS.

Although the Patient Centered Medical Homes health care model has been setup with a mission of organizing a critical care for patients and building better relationships that physicians could teach gain additional knowledge on what a patient is going through with their conditions. “David Keepnews (2013) reports Satisfaction has traditionally been measured with a variety of instruments and methods, with little agreement or consistency regarding how to interpret findings, how to utilize them, or even what is being measured. Despite this, providers of health and health-related services have devoted considerable resources to collecting and analyzing satisfaction data. Satisfaction scores have been used to identify quality problems and target interventions