Tools for Quality Measurement: CAHPS
Tools for Quality Measurement
| What is CAHPS®? | The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) program is a multiyear initiative of AHRQ to develop and promote the use of standardized surveys of consumers' experiences with health care.
The CAHPS surveys address a range of health care services and meet the information needs of health care consumers, purchasers, health plans, providers, and policymakers. In addition to supporting the development of standardized patient surveys that enable users to compare results across providers and over time, the CAHPS program produces instructions for implementing those surveys, benchmarking data, and tools and resources to help survey sponsors produce understandable and usable comparative information and to help health care providers assess and improve their own performance. The CAHPS program is a collaborative effort of organizations collectively known as the CAHPS Consortium. The CAHPS Consortium consists of Federal agencies, private research organizations, and a contractor that supports the CAHPS User Network. |
| Who should use CAHPS® surveys for quality measurement? | Health plans, health systems, physician practices, hospitals, and other health care providers can use the CAHPS surveys to assess their patients’ experiences with the care they deliver. They can then use the results to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to help develop strategies for improving patients' experiences. Other users of CAHPS surveys include government agencies, collaborative health care organizations, and other organizations seeking to assess health care quality and report comparative information on quality to consumers. |
| Where can you get additional resources? | To learn more, visit About CAHPS. |
