Improving Patient Experience

CAHPS^® surveys play an important role as a quality improvement (QI) tool for healthcare organizations that use the standardized data to:

• Identify relative strengths and weaknesses in their performance.
• Determine where they need to improve.
• Track their progress over time.

Supporting and assessing the use of CAHPS surveys for QI purposes is one of the key objectives for the CAHPS grants.

The CAHPS Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide

The CAHPS Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide is a comprehensive resource for health plans, medical groups, and other providers seeking to improve their performance in the domains of patient experience measured by CAHPS surveys of ambulatory care. Use this guide to help your organization:

• Cultivate an environment that encourages and sustains quality improvement.
• Analyze the results of CAHPS surveys to identify strengths and weaknesses.
• Develop strategies for improving performance.

Six Ways To Use CAHPS To Improve Patient Experience (1:15)

Research on Improving Patient Experience

Researchers affiliated with the CAHPS Consortium conduct both formal and informal studies to better understand how CAHPS surveys can be used to improve patient experience with care.

Expert Advice on Improving Patient Experience

In a series of recorded interviews, various experts in improving the quality of healthcare offered advice on what it takes to design and implement programs that lead to better patient experiences.

• The Case for Improving Patient Experience.
• Creating an Improvement Culture (Presentation).
• The Role of Leadership in Improvement Efforts.
• The Role of Human Resources Staff in Improvement Efforts (Presentation).
• Advancing Quality Through Teamwork at Multiple Levels.
• Identifying Areas To Improve.
• Practical Strategies for Gathering Feedback Directly From Patients.
• A Breakthrough Approach to Improving CAHPS Communication (Presentation).
• Understanding the Factors That Affect Care Coordination.
• Creating an Effective Customer Service Training Program.
• Tackling Low Health Literacy Among Primary Care Patients: A Model From Missouri.