Optimizing Your CAHPS Survey Hospice Experience: Best Practices

The CAHPS Survey Hospice is essential for understanding the quality of care provided by hospice agencies. It gathers crucial feedback from family members to help hospices improve their services and meet Medicare compliance. In this article, we will explore what the CAHPS Survey Hospice involves, its importance, and how hospices can optimize their survey processes.

Key Takeaways

The CAHPS Hospice Survey, developed by the RAND Corporation under CMS, is crucial for collecting feedback on hospice care quality from family members of deceased patients, covering aspects like communication, respect, and pain management.
Participation in the CAHPS Hospice Survey is mandatory for Medicare-certified hospices with 50 or more survey-eligible patient/family caregiver pairs to receive the full Annual Payment Update from Medicare, ensuring comprehensive quality assessment across providers.
Effectively administering and analyzing CAHPS Hospice Surveys, including enhancing response rates through specific strategies and leveraging real-time feedback, helps hospices identify areas for improvement and enhance overall patient and family experiences.

Understanding CAHPS Hospice Surveys

The CAHPS Hospice Survey is a national initiative designed to collect feedback from family members or friends who cared for a patient who passed away while receiving hospice care. Developed by the RAND Corporation under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2012, the survey aims to provide valuable insights into the quality of care and services provided by hospice agencies. As of 2015, the Hospice Survey was nationally implemented and has since become a vital part of the hospice quality reporting program.

The survey serves multiple purposes, including assessing communication with family, respect for patients, and the overall hospice experience. Publicly reported data from the survey includes eight measures, such as the quality of communication with family members and the respect shown to patients. These insights render invaluable assistance to hospice providers who are committed to enhancing their services and delivering the highest standard of care to patients and their families.

Importance of Compliance with CAHPS Hospice Survey Requirements

For numerous hospice agencies, adhering to the CAHPS Hospice Survey requirements is a necessity rather than an option. For Medicare-certified hospices with 50 or more survey-eligible patient/family caregiver pairs, participation in the survey is mandatory to receive the full Annual Payment Update from Medicare. This requirement ensures that a broad spectrum of hospice providers participate, offering a comprehensive view of the quality of care across different settings.

Hospices that do not meet the 50-survey-eligible-pair threshold can apply for a size exemption each year, but this exemption is only valid for one year and must be reapplied for if the criteria are met in subsequent years. Additionally, hospices that receive their CMS Certification Number (CCN) after January 1 of the data collection year are automatically exempt from survey participation for that year.

Maintaining funding and enhancing care quality hinges on adherence to national implementation of these requirements.

Types of Questions Asked in CAHPS Hospice Surveys

The CAHPS Hospice Survey comprises 47 questions designed to cover a wide range of topics relevant to family caregivers and hospice patients. These questions are meticulously crafted to measure various aspects of the hospice experience, including:

Communication
Timely help
Respect
Pain management
Caregiver training

For instance, caregivers are asked about:

The quality of communication with the hospice team, such as how well the team explained things and listened to their concerns
If they received timely help, especially during off-hours like evenings, weekends, or holidays
How the hospice team treated the patient, ensuring they were treated with dignity and genuine care

Pain management and symptom control are also critical areas, with questions addressing whether the patient received adequate help with issues like pain, breathing problems, and anxiety. Caregivers are also asked if they received the necessary training to manage the patient’s care effectively. Finally, caregivers rate their overall satisfaction with the hospice and their likelihood to recommend the service to others.

Administering CAHPS Hospice Surveys

Administering CAHPS Hospice Surveys involves partnering with approved vendors to ensure accurate data collection and reporting. Vendors who receive annual authorization from CMS are indispensable for the successful administration of the surveys. Experienced vendors like Press Ganey play a crucial role in this process, providing expertise and resources to manage the survey administration.

Surveys can be conducted through various modes, including mail mode and mixed-mode surveying. Mixed-mode surveying typically involves up to two mailings followed by up to six follow-up phone calls for non-respondents, ensuring higher response rates and more comprehensive data collection. The survey is administered in both English and Spanish, with optional translations available in several other languages to accommodate diverse populations. Additionally, vendors like Activated Insights offer phone surveys that provide deeper feedback and enhanced question-and-answer context.

Enhancing Response Rates

Achieving high response rates is key to obtaining robust data, which can be utilized for benchmark comparisons and initiatives to improve quality. One effective strategy to enhance response rates is to use the hospice agency’s logo on the survey cover letter. This not only reinforces brand recognition but also assures respondents of the survey’s authenticity.

Selecting the most knowledgeable caregiver, rather than defaulting to the spouse or P.O.A., can also improve the quality of feedback received. Educating caregivers about the survey from the first meeting and continuing through the bereavement period can raise awareness and encourage participation. These strategies collectively contribute to higher response rates and more accurate data collection.

Analyzing CAHPS Survey Data

Data analysis from CAHPS Hospice Surveys is a significant step towards pinpointing areas of improvement and formulating targeted strategies to boost care quality. The CAHPS team provides Analysis Programs in SAS, which support users in analyzing the closed-ended survey data. These programs adjust data for case mix and generate distributions of survey results for each measure.

The CAHPS macro provides the following features:

Calculates the average score for both individual survey items and composite measures
Provides a comprehensive view of performance
Indicates whether an entity’s scores are statistically different from the average
Helps hospices understand their performance in context

By leveraging these tools, hospices can gain valuable insights into caregivers’ perspectives and take actionable steps to improve service delivery through the assessment of healthcare providers, informed by healthcare research.

Real-Time Feedback and Alerts

Immediate feedback and alerts from CAHPS surveys provide invaluable support to hospice providers in rapidly identifying and resolving care issues. Timely feedback enables providers to identify and mitigate potential service delivery gaps promptly, ensuring that issues are resolved before they escalate.

Activated Insights offers real-time alerts regarding:

positive and potentially problematic comments
recognition of an employee
mention of litigation
medication issues
other red flag topics

This immediate insight into caregiver experiences can lead to timely quality improvements and enhanced service quality through consumer assessment.

Benchmarking and Performance Comparison

Hospices can pinpoint their strengths and areas needing improvement through benchmarking and performance comparison facilitated by CAHPS Hospice Surveys. By comparing their performance with that of other providers, hospices can understand where they stand and what they need to improve.

Performance measures on patient experience, such as consumer assessment of healthcare, include:

timely care
communication
emotional support
respect for family members

provide valuable insights for quality improvement. Consulting services can help hospice agencies leverage this benchmarking data to enhance care quality and overall patient satisfaction.

Automatic Submission to CMS

Collaborating with vendors who automatically submit CAHPS data to CMS allows for regulatory compliance and accurate depiction in Care Compare STAR ratings. Activated Insights, for example, submits quarterly CAHPS data to CMS, ensuring that hospices meet all regulatory requirements.

This automatic submission process offers the following benefits:

Simplifies compliance
Ensures that hospice agencies’ performance is accurately reflected in CMS’s Care Compare STAR ratings
STAR ratings are publicly reported and used by patients and families to make informed healthcare decisions.

Improving Patient and Family Experience

Leveraging feedback from the CAHPS Hospice Survey is instrumental in enhancing the overall experience for patients and their families. Questions on emotional and spiritual support, for example, explore the extent of support provided by the hospice team to family caregivers during and after the patient’s hospice care.

Hospices can use this feedback to provide better training for family caregivers on managing patient symptoms such as pain, trouble breathing, and restlessness. Additionally, the survey helps identify how well hospices are communicating with family members, which is crucial for improving overall satisfaction.

Requesting Expert Assistance

Hospices can optimize survey processes and enhance care quality by seeking expert assistance from CAHPS care survey vendors and consultants. Experts can provide insights into service recovery gaps and help develop targeted improvement strategies.

For instance, WellSky CAHPS Services provides real-time reporting, training, and consultant assistance. These tools help guide strategies for improving patient satisfaction. This continuous support and expert guidance can significantly enhance the quality of hospice care services.

Summary

In summary, optimizing your CAHPS Hospice Survey experience involves understanding the survey, complying with requirements, enhancing response rates, and effectively analyzing data. Real-time feedback, benchmarking, and automatic data submission to CMS are also crucial steps in this process. By leveraging the insights gained from these surveys, hospices can significantly improve patient and family experiences.

Incorporating expert assistance can further enhance these efforts, ensuring that hospice care services meet the highest standards of quality and satisfaction. Take action today to optimize your CAHPS Hospice Survey process and transform feedback into actionable insights for better care.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the CAHPS Hospice Survey?

The CAHPS Hospice Survey is a national survey that gathers feedback from family members or friends who cared for a patient who died while under hospice care, aiming to assess the quality of care and services provided.

Why is compliance with CAHPS Hospice Survey requirements important?

Compliance with CAHPS Hospice Survey requirements is important because it is mandatory for Medicare-certified hospices with 50 or more survey-eligible patient/family caregiver pairs to receive the full Annual Payment Update from Medicare, ensuring quality care and funding.

What types of questions are asked in the CAHPS Hospice Survey?

The CAHPS Hospice Survey asks 47 questions covering communication, timely help, respect, pain management, caregiver training, and overall satisfaction.

How can hospices enhance response rates for the CAHPS Hospice Survey?

To enhance response rates for the CAHPS Hospice Survey, hospices can use their logo on the survey cover letter, select knowledgeable caregivers for feedback, and educate caregivers about the survey from the first meeting through bereavement. These strategies can help improve the overall response rates.

How can hospices analyze CAHPS survey data effectively?

To analyze CAHPS survey data effectively, hospices can utilize CAHPS Analysis Programs in SAS. This helps in adjusting for case mix, calculating average scores, and identifying areas for improvement based on caregivers’ perspectives.