Description of the HCAHPS Survey Essay

The HCAHPS survey is an assessment of the healthcare system and healthcare providers conducted by a consumer. The survey instrument is a standardized and first national survey that is used to report the public opinion of patients about a hospital and the entire healthcare system. The first broad purpose of the data collection method is measuring the perception of patients about a hospital concerning their experience. The perception collected by this survey instrument is reported publicly to facilitate valid comparison of the hospital performance nationally, regionally, and globally. Once the public reporting and comparison are done, hospitals can use the data to initiate quality improvement initiatives to ensure that patients get quality and safe care. The data is also used to enhance transparency and accountability in the healthcare system by ensuring that public investment is used to provide quality care.

Feelings about the HCAHPS Survey

Upon filing the HCAHPS survey provided, my emotional feeling towards healthcare provision was that there is room for improvement. I felt that the survey instruments provide a credible way of a patient expressing personal opinion and perception of the hospital and healthcare system without intimidation. I feel that the survey provides a practical approach to assessing the hospital from various dimensions to ensure that the patients’ opinions, thoughts, and perceptions are incorporated in the healthcare delivery system. My response to the HCAHPS survey is that hospitals should increase the number of questions, the areas of assessment, and the issues to be addressed by the HCAHPS survey to make it more useful. Besides, the survey questions should be made open-ended to ensure that patients are not limited to the response they should provide. Rather, patients should be free to provide personal opinions away from the multiple-choice question provided to make the survey more credible. Description of the HCAHPS Survey Essay

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Evaluation of the HCAHPS Survey

Upon filing the sample HCAHPS survey, I realized that the positive issues about the response are that all the critical aspects of patients’ experiences with hospital services and the healthcare system are captured in the survey. Another positive aspect of the HCAHPS survey is that the survey also incorporates three items that direct patients to relevant questions relating to very critical aspects of their healthcare and the healthcare system. It also embraces diversity by providing five additional items used to adjust for the mix of patients so that it captures all issues across hospitals (Tighe, Fillingim & Hurley, 2014). Moreover, the HCAHPS survey has two items that uses the data captured to support reports mandated by Congress. The negative issues about the response are that it may not provide an accurate perception and opinion of the patients about healthcare. Besides, it seems to encourage more competition among hospitals than encouraging the provision of patient-centered care that meets the specific needs of each patient.

Analysis of the HCAHPS Survey

Patients can make sense of the HCAHPS survey and its current use by viewing it as a significant aspect of airing concerns and perception of patients on various aspects of healthcare provision. The survey thus provides results that are important in influencing the quality improvement process of healthcare organizations. It also affects the reputation of the healthcare organization because hospitals would struggle to get positive scores and reviews in the survey (Siddiqui, Wu, Kurbanova, et al., 2014). The HCAHPS survey enables the government to provide reimbursements of medical care provided based on the results from the perspective of the patients. In the end, this survey motivates healthcare organizations to always provide quality and safe care to their patients because the excellent results would result in more reimbursement, thus promoting their financial stability.

Conclusion

The general conclusion drawn from taking the HCAHPS survey and experience is that the survey correlates with the contemporary patients’ satisfaction metrics. This is because of the level of patients’ satisfaction on the difference between the expectation of the patients and the actual services rendered. When a patient gets services that meet their expectation or surpasses their expectation, they show satisfaction with the healthcare services (Jung, Srivastava, Abouljoud, et al., 2018). However, any services rendered below the expectation of the patients would result in low patient satisfaction. Conversely, the general scores of a hospital in the HCAHPS survey will illustrate the level of satisfaction of the patients with the services rendered. Hospitals can thus use the HCAHPS survey to measure patients’ satisfaction with their services and the healthcare system.

Action plan

My experience when filing the HCAHPS survey sample might change the way I practice as a nurse because it will give an insight into the critical areas I need to put more emphasis on to provide quality and safe healthcare. In particular, I will begin observing how I communicate with my patients and increase my responsiveness to the patients’ needs, concerns, and desires. I will also ensure that I use the best pain management modalities to control pain in my patients based on their views and recommendation (Godden, Paseka, Gnida & Inguanzo, 2019). Additionally, the survey has opened my eyes to how best I should communicate with the patients about medication and what I should include in their discharge information. I have also learned my role in ensuring that the hospital environment is clean and quiet. Therefore, I shall always rely on the results of the HCAHPS survey to initiate quality improvement in my nursing care profession.Description of the HCAHPS Survey Essay

References

Godden, E., Paseka, A., Gnida, J., & Inguanzo, J. (2019). The impact of response rate on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System (HCAHPS) dimension scores. Patient Experience Journal, 6(1), 105-114.

Jung, E. K., Srivastava, K., Abouljoud, M., Keller, R., Okoroha, K., & Davis, J. (2018). Does the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey correlate with traditional metrics of patient satisfaction? The challenge of measuring patient pain control and satisfaction in total joint replacement. Arthroplasty Today, 4(4), 470-474.

Siddiqui, Z. K., Wu, A. W., Kurbanova, N., & Qayyum, R. (2014). Comparison of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient satisfaction scores for specialty hospitals and general medical hospitals: confounding effect of survey response rate. Journal of hospital medicine, 9(9), 590-593.

Tighe, P. J., Fillingim, R. B., & Hurley, R. W. (2014). Geospatial analysis of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems pain management experience scores in US hospitals. PAIN®, 155(5), 1016-1026. Description of the HCAHPS Survey Essay