NARUS 2018: Getting your HCAPS 11/11 Every Time

Las Vegas, NV (UroToday.com) The intent of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Services (HCAHPS) initiative is to provide a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives on hospital care. Prior to HCAHPS there was no national standard for collecting or publicly reporting patients’ perspectives of care information that would enable valid comparisons to be made across all hospitals. In order to make “apples to apples” comparisons to support consumer choice, it was necessary to introduce a standard measurement approach: the HCAHPS Survey. HCAHPS is a set of questions that can be combined with a broader, customized set of hospital-specific items. HCAHPS Survey items complement the data hospitals currently collect to support improvements in internal customer services and quality related activities.

Patients experience multiple touch points through their hospital stay and through every interaction they see if they can trust the hospital personnel. It is therefore important to engage in purposeful behaviors. AIDET = acknowledge, introduce, duration, explanation, thank, is a guide to how personnel should interact with patients. It is important to keep the patients informed and ask other personnel if you do not know the answer to their questions. Additional important steps that should be taken include hourly rounding on the patients in the hospital with purposeful addressing of specific needs such as pain, position, personal needs (such as bathroom needs) environment assessment, and more. Other steps include providing education regarding patient medication, assisting with the recovery process, and effective discharge planning.

In summary, it is important to make sure that the patients are put in the center of the caring experience. Hospital staff should engage in purposeful interaction and communication with the patients. Ongoing education of patients and staff should be a constant non-stop process.


Presented By: Courtney DiBona, Hackensack Meridian Health

Written By: Hanan Goldberg, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow (SUO), University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre @GoldbergHanan at the 2018 North American Robotic Urology Symposium, February 16-17, 2018 - Las Vegas, NV