What is HCAHPS and what is its role?

• A. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems; survey used to capture patient experience and ties to payment.
• B. A clinical outcomes registry used for quality benchmarking.
• C. An internal tool for physician productivity.
• D. A patient advocacy group accreditation program.

Answer: (A)

HCAHPS is a standardized survey that measures patients' perceptions of their hospital care. It is given to adult inpatients after discharge and covers aspects like communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of staff, pain management, information about medications and discharge, and the cleanliness and quietness of the hospital.

Its role is twofold. First, it provides comparable, publicly reportable data on patient experience across hospitals, helping consumers compare how well hospitals support patients. Second, it is used by Medicare in its pay-for-performance programs to adjust a portion of hospital payments based on patient-experience performance. This makes the survey a key tool for both quality improvement and reimbursement, rather than a measure of clinical outcomes, an internal productivity tool, or an accreditation/advocacy program.