Improve your HCAHPS results with realtime measurement

Posted by Dennis Lewis

March 31, 2009

by Dennis H. Lewis

The HCAHPS system isn’t just designed to compare and inform about hospitals. The truth of the matter is that medicare has incorporated the HCAHPS results into their value based purchasing system, which directly links hospital’s reimbursement payments to their patient experience scores. For most hospitals in the United States this represents between $300.000 and $2.000.000 a year in revenue received from medicare.

This is no laughing matter for hospital administrators. Improving HCAHPS scores has become a vital factor for economic survival for many healthcare providers.

One of the most important methods you can implement to improve your HCAHPS scores is a realtime patient satisfaction measurement system. By tracking and analyzing patient satisfaction on a daily basis, you will be able to detect problem areas and correct them before they influence your official HCAHPS scores. This system will provide you with the critical information necessary to become the “Hospital of Choice” in your area.

The reason constant realtime measurement is so important is due to the very nature of the HCAHPS survey process. Following a highly protocoled government designed plan, the survey is administered to a small sample of discharged patients several weeks after they leave the hospital. In fact, the target sample size for an entire year is only 300 patients.

Despite the fact that many hospitals achieve considerably larger sample sizes, it is still true that a small group of disgruntled patients who happen to fall in the sample, can dramatically alter your overall HCAHPS scores. For this reason, the identification and correction of problem areas should be vitally important to your organization.

However, this data can’t be kept under lock and key. You need to distribute it immediately to frontline managers who have the authority to make real changes to improve patient opinions. This realtime online data in the hands of your staff on the front lines represents a formidable machine for constant improvement. Once a problem is detected, corrected measures can be taken and a few hours later you will be verifying that they have worked.

The idea of truly realtime measurement of patient satisfaction wasn’t possible until very recently. Thanks to an innovative new technology called Gustometria, hospitals can now track patient satisfaction easily and affordably as part of their daily in hospital routines. Patients answer quick surveys by touching the screen of the portable “gustometer” with their fingers right in their rooms. Since the entire survey process usually takes about a minute and a half, the use of the gustometer can be incorporated into the normal day to day interactions with your patients. Once completed the survey is automatically collected by the Gustometria servers, tabulated and ready for analysis.

More importantly Gustometria incorporates a very sophisticated business intelligence system which will allow you to extract the maximum value from your survey data. You will be able to contrast your custom profile questions with the results of each valuation question. Gustometria also allows you to adapt your surveys on the fly an to structure your surveys in a way which assures high participation rates.

The benefits of the Gustometria system are substantial and easy to put into practice, and you can be up and running in less than a week.

Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call Gustometria toll free at 1-877-448-7865.

About the Author:

The financial implications of tracking patient satisfaction are greater than ever. Our proven technology can form an integral part of your HCAHPS strategy.

Healthcare

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