Lessons learned from the “Dry Run” of the HCAHPS survey

Research Objective

In this presentation, we explore a critical event in the newly-launched CAHPS® Hospital Survey (HCAHPS): the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients' perspectives of their hospital care. In 2006 a large-scale “Dry Run” of the HCAHPS survey was conducted in order to allow the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish the final administrative protocols for the HCAHPS in advance of full national implementation.

Study Design

Over 2,800 short-term, acute care hospitals voluntarily enrolled in the HCAHPS 2006 Dry Run. The survey was conducted by self-administering hospitals, hospitals administering for multiple sites and survey vendors. The hospitals and survey vendors were required to meet participation criteria before proceeding with: survey mode administration selection; sample frame creation of eligible patient discharges; survey administration; data collection; data submission via XML file or online data entry tool; and QualityNet system utilization. This design provided an opportunity for CMS to: implement and test systems for Survey data storage and retrieval through the QualityNet Exchange system; collect and process Survey data; and develop and implement protocols for providing technical assistance.

Population Studied

Eligible patients were: English- or Spanish-speaking adults with non-psychiatric primary diagnoses who were discharged alive after at least one in patient overnight stay in a participating short-term, acute care hospital.

Principal Findings

The Dry Run allowed hospitals, survey vendors and CMS to identify and resolve problematic issues before the national implementation, resulting in more efficient data collection and submission processes and improved data integrity. By all accounts, the Dry Run proved to be a very valuable learning experience. We will describe how the experiences of hospitals, survey vendors and CMS in the Dry Run have led to improvements in the survey implementation protocol.

Conclusions

It is essential that a standardized process for data collection and submission be consistently applied by all hospitals and survey vendors participating in HCAHPS. Successful completion of a Dry Run by hospitals and survey vendors greatly improves the standardization of data collection and submission across hospitals and provides a critical opportunity for all affected parties to gain valuable experience before HCAHPS results are publicly reported.