What is HCAHPS?

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey used to measure patient perceptions of acute hospital care. Throughout a series of 22 questions, distributed quarterly, the survey asks patients to rate the frequency of events during their hospital care as never, sometimes, usually and always. By publicly releasing the results of this survey, CMS hopes to provide consumers with information that might be helpful when choosing a hospital.

Hospitals voluntarily choose to participate in HCAHPS as a supplement to other quality improvement measurements already being implemented by the facility. Combined, these surveys provide hospitals with data necessary to ensure excellent patient care.

HCAHPS results consist of the following ten items: six composite topics; two individual topics (cleanliness and quietness); and two overall ratings. For more information, and to see the HCAHPS results for patients discharged between October 2006 and June 2007, please go to http://www.hcahpsonline.com. 

Most Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is HCAHPS required?

A: HCAHPS is a voluntary initiative

Q: Which hospitals are eligible to participate in HCAHPS?

A: Hospitals that report clinical data to CMS are eligible to participate in HCAHPS. It is not intended to be used for pediatric hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, or other specialty hospitals.

Q: What patients are eligible to receive and HCAHPS survey?

A: The survey is designed for all (not just Medicare) adult patients discharged from general acute care hospitals after an overnight stay. Patients to be excluded include: patients who are under 18, those who died in the hospital, patients discharged to hospice, patients who received psychiatric or rehabilitative services, prisoners, and patients with international addresses. Other allowable exclusions would include those required to comply with any state legislation.

Q: What does the data look like when they are publicly reported on the Hospital Compare website?

A: The consumer can select one hospital and choose to view an individual core measure or hospital experience or select all of them to be displayed. Consumers can also select up to three hospitals in a county to compare results. Reports can be viewed by line item or by bar graphs. For composites and global items, the percent of responses in the top box (i.e., percent Always, 10, Yes, etc.) will be displayed. The entire distribution of responses may be also displayed. Consumers will have the ability to drill down for more information. Data will likely be reported in a fashion similar to clinical data on the Hospital Compare Web site: (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov).