The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys are an essential piece of delivering Medicare-certified care at home. Beyond their direct impact on regulatory compliance, CAHPS surveys enable providers and their peers to evaluate the quality of care they provide from the perspective of the people who receive it.
To ensure the feedback your organization receives from the CAHPS survey is representative of its entire patient population, obtaining the highest possible number of completed surveys is critical. A high survey response rate provides a more accurate and comprehensive picture of care quality and areas for improvement.
To help care at home providers improve their CAHPS survey response rate, Axxess created this reference guide outlining five keys to success. Below is a practical example of how to apply these best practices.
Your Journey to an Improved CAHPS® Survey Response Rate
1. Educate All Staff
Start by educating your staff. Organize a series of training sessions to discuss the importance of the CAHPS survey, review the survey questions, and analyze each staff member’s role in increasing patient/caregiver participation.
2. Ensure Correct Contact Information
During these training sessions, discuss the importance of ensuring all patients have accurate contact information documented in their patient charts. Open a patient’s chart in your EMR system and demonstrate accurate documentation of the patient’s name, mailing address, phone number, and preferred language. Show how to document a patient’s CAHPS survey contact for cases when the patient is mentally or physically incapable of completing the survey (or for CAHPS Hospice where the survey is administered after the patient’s death).
If data in your organization’s CAHPS file, such as a mailing address, is missing or invalid, your CAHPS survey vendor should contact you to request the necessary corrections. Make sure to closely monitor and promptly address all correspondence from your CAHPS survey vendor, and instruct field staff to regularly verify each patient’s contact information during visits.
3. Educate Your Patients
People are more likely to respond to a survey when they know to expect it, and CMS permits home health providers to inform patients during each visit that they may be contacted to participate in a survey following their discharge.
Instruct field staff of every discipline to make the CAHPS survey a talking point at every home health visit, and script language to keep this messaging consistent across patients. For CAHPS Hospice, this type of communication is only permitted at admission and after the patient’s death.
4. Script CAHPS Survey Communication
Your script for informing home health patients that they may be contacted for the CAHPS survey might read:
Once you’re discharged, you may receive a survey in the mail or a phone call to complete a survey over the phone. The survey will come from Axxess, and your name will not be attached to your answers unless you give Axxess permission to attach it. You are not required to participate in the survey, but we would greatly appreciate your feedback so we can continue to improve the quality of care we provide. Our goal is to always provide excellent care for our patients, and your answers will help us do that.
5. Use the Tools Provided by Your CAHPS Survey Vendor
Leverage the tools your CAHPS survey vendor provides to streamline your CAHPS survey processes. For example, if Axxess is your CAHPS survey vendor, log in to your Axxess CAHPS portal, navigate to the Downloads screen under the Help tab, and implement the downloadable resources in your organization’s protocol and procedures. Establish specific requirements, such as:
- Intake staff must provide the Patient Outreach Letter to the patient at admission and recertification.
- The HH CAHPS Fact Sheet must be included in the patient’s admission packet.
- Both resources must be provided in the patient’s preferred language (as documented in the patient’s chart in Axxess Home Health).
With more feedback at your fingertips, your organization will be better equipped to make informed operational improvements that enhance care quality and elevate patient satisfaction. Implementing these key steps will not only benefit your patients but also strengthen your organization’s reputation and drive greater success.
Axxess CAHPS offers real-time survey results, market insights, and a suite of on-demand videos and training tools in a user-friendly CAHPS portal.
