There are only three questions asked to the patient about the doctors after the discharge. Usually they exclude patients going to facilities, psychiatric floors, observation patients, hospice/deceased patients, prison patients, foreign address patients etc. Complete questionnaire can be seen here.
YOUR CARE FROM DOCTORS
During this hospital stay, how often did doctors treat you with courtesy and respect?
1 Never
2 Sometimes
3 Usually
4 Always
During this hospital stay, how often did doctors listen carefully to you?
1 Never
2 Sometimes
3 Usually
4 Always
During this hospital stay, how often did doctors explain things in a way you could understand?
1 Never
2 Sometimes
3 Usually
4 Always
Medicare puts all the data in a website. You can check your hospital HCAHPS scores here.
What is important to know as a hospitalist is that, HCAHPS survey replies from patients are attached to the hospitalists who discharged the patient even though lot of other doctors are involved in care of that patient. These scores are tied to the hospitalists’ bonus.
Giving the patients quality care is the most important thing to have good HCAHPS scores. Ask patients if it is a good time to speak to them when evaluating.
The most effective way to know if the patient actually understood what the hospitalist told is ‘teach back‘ method. Ask the patients to explain what they understood. But sick patients or very elderly patients may not be able to cooperate with teach back method. In these cases, talking to the family should help.
Showing empathy goes a long way to let patients know you listened carefully to their problems.
Post discharge phone call is highly appreciated by majority of patients.
Try to address the patients’ family members by ‘Sir/Madam’.
