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Hospitals collect a trove of data on their quality and effectiveness. Here’s how to find and evaluate these HCAHPS ratings.
The federal government requires numerous hospitals to survey patients about the quality of their care and report the data back in the form of HCAHPS scores.
HCAHPS, or the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, is a standardized survey that hospitals have used since 2006. The point of the survey is to tally information about patients’ satisfaction with hospitals, providing a way for consumers to compare different hospitals.
Numerous Medicare-certified hospitals use surveys to rate the quality of their care. From patient experiences to patient satisfaction, these surveys paint a broad picture of the health care you can expect to get at a hospital.
Here, you’ll learn how to find the results of these surveys, as well as how HCAHPS Hospital scores can help you compare the quality of different hospitals.
The result of the HCAHPS surveys is a relatively easy-to-navigate star rating system, measuring 11 different categories, including:
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If you’re looking for HCAHPS scores, you can visit Medicare.gov’s Hospital Compare portal. This site has information from over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals.
Using this tool, you can enter basic geographical information, and either search among a number of hospitals, or pull up the ratings for a single hospital.
The search results include the hospital’s distance from your home, a five-star “overall rating” measurement, and the hospital’s type. You can also select a hospital and compare it to another using the web-based tool.
The Hospital Compare portal includes a number of other resources, including surgical-outcome measures, and a guide for choosing the right hospital.
You can see how HCAHPS scores can help consumers. But as Massachusetts General Hospital points out, these surveys serve another function for patients. That is, they provide patients with a voice. They’re an opportunity for patients to speak up when health care is excellent (or when it needs improvement).
HCAHPS isn’t just about helping you find the right hospital. HCAHPS surveys empower you to voice your feelings about a hospital and to make that information available to the public.
We've published numerous guides to help Medicare recipients better understand their benefits and live more fulfilling lives past the age of 65. Read through some of our popular guides below.
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Christian Worstell is a licensed insurance agent and a Senior Staff Writer for MedicareSupplement.com. He is passionate about helping people navigate the complexities of Medicare and understand their coverage options.
His work has been featured in outlets such as Vox, MSN, and The Washington Post, and he is a frequent contributor to health care and finance blogs.
Christian is a graduate of Shippensburg University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He currently lives in Raleigh, NC.
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