Improve Patients' Experiences With Primary and Specialty Care

Results of the Clinician & Group Survey can help medical groups, practice sites, and individual physicians pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in their patients’ experiences with care medical groups, practice sites, and individual physicians. The survey data can also be used to ; and, assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve patients’ experiences in specific areas.

Several resources are available to support healthcare organizations in this effort to improve patient experience:

• CAHPS Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide.
• Research meeting on improving patient experience.
• Webcasts
• Reports and case studies.

The CAHPS Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide

The CAHPS Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide is a comprehensive resource for medical groups, physician practices, and other providers seeking to improve their performance in the domains of quality measured by the CAHPS Clinician & Group Survey.

Research Meeting on Improving Patient Experience

On October 7, 2020, AHRQ convened a research meeting called Advancing Methods of Implementing and Evaluating Patient Experience Improvement Using CAHPS Surveys.

This meeting featured representatives of several different types of health care organizations that are using CAHPS survey results, other data, and targeted strategies to improve specific aspects of patient experience.

Read about the meeting:

• Quigley DD, Qureshi N, Rybowski L, Shaller D, Edgman-Levitan S, Cleary PD, Ginsberg C, Hays RD. Summary of the 2020 AHRQ Research Meeting on "Advancing Methods of Implementing and Evaluating Patient Experience Improvement Using Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Surveys". Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research. May 2002. DOI: 10.1080/14737167.2022.2064848
• Summary of the presentations at the October 2020 research meeting on patient experience improvement methods.

Webcasts

AHRQ hosts webcasts to share insights, findings, and best practices related to improving care in ambulatory care settings.

Featured Webcast:

• The Power of Patient Stories for Improving the Patient Experience.
• Improving Patient Experience in Large Organizations.
• Improving Patient Experience: Data Analysis Methods.
• Lessons From Healthcare Organizations on Improving Patient Experience.
• Creative Strategies to Improve Patient Care Experience.
• Strategies for Improving CAHPS Clinician & Group (CG-CAHPS) Survey Scores.
• Achieving Excellence Across All CG-CAHPS Core Measures: Lessons from Top-Performing Medical Practices.
• Myth Busting: Using the CG-CAHPS 12-Month Survey for Quality Improvement.
• Improving Patients' Experiences: How Primary Care and Specialty Practices Are Using the CAHPS Clinician & Group Survey.
• Improving Patient Care: How Medical Practices Are Using New CAHPS Surveys for Ambulatory Settings.

Reports and Case Studies

As part of the CAHPS program, AHRQ-funded researchers have been conducting multiple studies to test and evaluate improvement initiatives in ambulatory care settings. These studies focus on the following topics:

• Reporting Patient Experience Information to Internal Users.
• Assessing the Impact of Nurse Care Coordination.
• Assessing the Use of Clinician & Group Survey Results in a Quality Monitoring and Improvement Program.
• Use of CAHPS Surveys in Patient-Centered Medical Homes.
• Estimating the Magnitude of Differences in Patient Experiences Scores.

Read about this recent and ongoing research on improving patient experience.

Case studies and reports on this topic include the following:

• Improving Customer Service at Health Share of Oregon (PDF, 279 KB).
• How Two Provider Groups Are Using the CAHPS^® Clinician & Group Survey for Quality Improvement (PDF, 3 MB).
• Improving Customer Service and Access in a Surgical Practice (PDF, 998 KB).
• Patient-Centered Care: What Does It Take?
• Providing Performance Feedback to Individual Physicians: Current Practice and Emerging Lessons.