Usefulness of Child HCAHPS Survey Data for Improving Inpatient Pediatric Care Experiences

Abstract

OBJECTIVES Quality improvement (QI) requires data, indicators, and national benchmarks. Knowledge about the usefulness of Child Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Child HCAHPS) data are lacking. We examined quality leader and frontline staff perceptions about patient experience measurement and use of Child HCAHPS data for QI. METHODS We surveyed children’s hospital leaders and staff about their use of Child HCAHPS for QI, including measures from other studies. We compared scale and item means for leaders and staff and compared means to other studies. RESULTS Almost all leaders, but only one-third of staff, received reports with Child HCAHPS data. Leaders found the data more useful for comparisons to other hospitals than did staff. Both agreed on the validity of Child HCAHPS scores and used these data for improving pediatric care experiences. They agreed the data accurately reflect their hospital’s quality of care, provide specific information for QI, and can be used to improve pediatric care experiences. They also agreed on approaches to improve Child HCAHPS scores. Among staff, QI was reported as essential to their daily work and that Child HCAHPS data were integral to QI. CONCLUSIONS As uptake of the Child HCAHPS survey increases, our study of one medium-sized, urban children’s hospital revealed that leaders and staff believe Child HCAHPS provides actionable metrics for improvement. Our study fills a gap in research about the use of Child HCAHPS for pediatric QI. A multisite evaluation would provide further information about how the Child HCAHPS survey can improve care.

Pediatric Inpatient Leaders, Views Changed with COVID-19: A Call to Re-engage in Quality Improvement

“…In addition, the survey included 6 single-item measures: Child HCAHPS results are provided promptly by vendor; Child HCAHPS sample size is large enough to meet [Named Hospital's] needs; frequency the respondent Received reports about patient experience; whether Reports received included Child HCAHPS global ratings (Yes/No); Reports included specific domains of Child HCAHPS patient experience (Yes/No), and Reports included patient comments from Child HCAHPS survey(Yes/No). 9 The Children's Hospital physician leader of the pediatric quality committee sent a letter introducing the study and informing leaders about the survey. We emailed leaders to respond and provide informed consent by completing the online survey.…”

“…We describe findings from the larger study elsewhere. [8][9][10][11] As part of their QI process, we administered a survey to assess quality leaders' perceptions of and experiences using the Child HCAHPS survey to monitor and improve the quality of care. This Children's Hospital Quality Leaders survey included 5 multi-item composite measures: Perceptions of hospital priorities (3 items); Importance of patient experience relative to other goals (3 items); Agreement on validity of Child HCAHPS scores (7 items); Agreement on approaches that can improve Child HCAHPS scores (12 items), and Child HCAHPS domains hospital worked to improve (18 items).…”

Summary of the 2020 AHRQ research meeting on ‘advancing methods of implementing and evaluating patient experience improvement using consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems (CAHPS®) surveys’

“…Health care leaders should present patient feedback for review in leadership and QI team meetings [28,29]. Patient feedback includes survey data, patient comments, grievance reports, letters, and other qualitative data [8,[30][31][32][33]. These data should be used to set performance targets and to monitor the effectiveness of QI activities.…”

Evaluation of a protocol for eliciting narrative accounts of pediatric inpatient experiences of care

“…4 Its results are a valued source of information for understanding the quality of care provided to patients and their families. 5,6 However, responses to closed-ended surveys often lack the granular detail needed to catalyze quality improvement and the capacity to engage families in describing what mattered to them during their child's hospitalization. [7][8][9] Narrative accounts of patient experience have been demonstrated to be an important supplement to quantitative survey data, providing information on aspects of care not captured in conventional patient experience surveys, 7,[10][11][12][13] helping clinicians better understand patients' expectations and concerns, 14 and providing context and further detail on patients' evaluations of care beyond numeric data.…”

“…The survey contains 18 measures categorized into five broad domains: communication with parent, communication with child, attention to safety and comfort, hospital environment, and global ratings 4 . Its results are a valued source of information for understanding the quality of care provided to patients and their families 5,6 …”