Journal of Healthcare Management - January/February 2014 - (Page 32)

Journal of H ealt H care M anage Ment 59:1 J anuary /f ebruary 2014 iNtrodUCtioN The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey leaves no space for patients to write comments, yet in this study, we found that almost 20% of patients at two community hospitals wrote comments onto HCAHPS questionnaires following their inpatient stays. Hospital Compare, the public's means of access to provider quality data, does not display patient comments, and to our knowledge, comments written on these surveys are not recorded or analyzed. Thus, prior to this study, it was unknown whether comments provide important information about patients' experience that is not captured by the standard HCAHPS questions, or whether they merely lend context to the quantitative survey data. Improving the patient experience has become increasingly important since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began to link reimbursement to hospitals' HCAHPS scores as part of the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program. However, of all the variables in HVBP, administrators believe that HCAHPS scores are the most difficult measures to improve (HealthLeaders, 2012). As the search for ways to improve patients' experience has become more urgent, healthcare executives have turned to information from patients' comments to more effectively pinpoint problems and lead to tangible suggestions for improvement by the medical, nursing, and support staffs (Green & McKeever, 2007). For years, comments on satisfaction surveys have been examined by hospital administrators, who have used them to gain insight into operational successes and failures that are sometimes not apparent from reading quantitative analyses of survey questions (Press Ganey, 2009). This activity suggests that anecdotal comments contain useful information above and beyond the quantitative scores these surveys provide. In this study, we examined the relative contribution of both qualitative comments and quantitative ratings to the prediction of overall hospital rating and intention to recommend the hospital. The importance of understanding patients' experiences goes beyond the need to achieve incentives offered through the HVBP program, as increased patient satisfaction has been linked to improved health outcomes (Sofaer & Firminger, 2005). BaCKGroUNd Quantitative and Qualitative assessments of Patients' Experience To involve consumers in choosing facilities that offer high-quality care, hospitals are required to publicly report quality information, including data from their HCAHPS surveys, which summarize patients' experience; online access to these findings is available through the Hospital Compare website (see http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/ Quality-Initiatives-Patient-AssessmentInstruments/HospitalQualityInits /HospitalCompare.html). However, recent findings indicate that few consumers know about or use this information to make informed choices among alternative providers, despite significant investments made by CMS to collect, analyze, and publicly report the data (Dolan, 2008; Fung, Lim, Mattke, Damberg, & Shekelle, 2008; Hibbard, 32 http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HospitalQualityInits/HospitalCompare.html http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HospitalQualityInits/HospitalCompare.html http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HospitalQualityInits/HospitalCompare.html

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of Healthcare Management - January/February 2014

Journal of Healthcare Management - January/February 2014
Contents
Interview With Kenneth R. White, PhD, FACHE, Associate Dean for Strategic Partnerships and Innovation and the University of Virginia Medical Center Professor of Nursing, University of Virginia School of Nursing
Team-Based Care at Mayo Clinic: A Model for ACOs
The Management Springboard: Eight Ways to Launch Your Career as a Healthcare Leader
The Role of a Public–Private Partnership: Translating Science to Improve Cancer Care in the Community Donna M. O’Brien and Arnold D. Kaluzny
The Value of Patients’ Handwritten Comments on HCAHPS Surveys John W. Huppertz and Robert Smith
Can Inbound and Domestic Medical Tourism Improve Your Bottom Line? Identifying the Potential of a U.S. Tourism Market
Success Factors for Strategic Change Initiatives: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Administrators’ Perspectives

Journal of Healthcare Management - January/February 2014