Voluntary HCAHPS Questions Available with July 1, 2012 Discharges
Effective with July 1, 2012 eligible discharges, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide hospitals the opportunity to add five voluntary questions to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Since 2006, the HCAHPS Standard Survey has consisted of 27 questions; 22 Core, or "Care Transition" HCAHPS questions and 5 "About You" HCAHPS questions. The voluntary HCAHPS Expanded Survey consists of 32 questions; 25 Core, or "Care Transition" HCAHPS Questions and 7 "About You" HCAHPS questions.
The three new Core HCAHPS questions were developed by the Care Transitions Program® and include the following questions:
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During this hospital stay, staff took my preferences and those of my family or caregiver into account in deciding what my healthcare needs would be when I left.
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When I left the hospital, I clearly understood the purpose for taking each of my medications.
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When I left the hospital, I had a good understanding of the things I was responsible for in managing my health.
Patients are asked to rate the question on a scale of 1-4; 1=Strongly Disagree and 4=Strongly Agree. The medication question also includes 5="I was not given any medication when I left the hospital."
The two new "About You" questions were originally tested in the HCAHPS Three-State Pilot Study in 2003 and include the following questions:
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During this hospital stay, were you admitted to this hospital through the Emergency Room?
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In general, how would you rate your overall mental or emotional health?
The Emergency Department question was added to gather information that was formally only available by obtaining hospital administrative records and consists of a simple "Yes" or "No" answer. The mental or emotional health item was added for possible use in patient-mix adjustment. Patients are asked to answer the question on a scale of 1-5 with 1=Excellent and 5=Poor.
Organizations currently have the option to use the new HCAHPS Expanded survey questions, however, CMS anticipates they may be mandated in fiscal year 2013. If hospitals choose to add the voluntary questions, they are required to adopt all five new items in their surveys. CMS will then publically report the calculated mean score on the Hospital Compare website after one year’s worth of data is collected. This is different than the current practice of focusing on the top box percentages. Additional information on the HCAHPS Expanded survey questions can be found on the HCAHPS website, www.hcahpsonline.org.
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