THE ROLE OF THE STAFF NURSE IN PATIENT SATISFACTION AND THE HOSPITAL CONSUMER ASSESSMENT OF HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS AND SYSTEMS (HCAHPS)

WHEREAS, HCAHPS is an acronym for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems; and

WHEREAS, HCAHPS includes questions that are designed to include both broad and specific questions related to the hospital setting of the patient; and

WHEREAS, the intent of the HCAHPS initiative is to provide both a survey instrument and data-collection methodology to measure a patient’s experience during hospital care, as per HCAHPS online, 2013; and

WHEREAS, HCAHPS is monitored by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); and

WHEREAS, HCAHPS measures 16 different indicators of patient satisfaction; and

WHEREAS, nurses play a critical role in the patient-care experience; and

WHEREAS, Press Ganey’s study emphasizes the important role that nurses serve in transforming the healthcare system; and

WHEREAS, beginning in October 2012, hospitals’ Medicare payments began to be partially calculated by their patient-satisfaction scores on the HCAHPS survey; and

WHEREAS, communication with nurses is a key contributor to improving patient satisfaction and CMS payment programs; and

WHEREAS, best practices connected to solid performance include purposeful hourly rounding, bedside shift reporting, use of scripts, post-discharge phone calls, and providing service-skills training; and many hospitals are implementing these strategies within their healthcare organizations to improve communication and the overall patient care experience:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers will help educate locals about the best practices staff nurses may follow to achieve better HCAHPS scores.