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"HCAHPS is one of the most powerful
transformations for U.S. healthcare since Medicare and Medicaid were signed into
law in 1965. For the first time since patients in the U.S. were given these
essential insurance plans, their voices can have a real impact on how care is
delivered. As part of CMS's Value Based Purchasing plan, HCAHPS survey results
allow patients to influence the drive to steer payments to those providers whose
patients perceive that they provide better care. As such, it is absolutely
critical that your organization understand and focus on the underlying factors
that will create, in the eyes of your patients, the perception of the care you
provide." |
HCAHPS Score Improvement
Choose LifeWings
Training To Ensure Consistently
High HCAHPS Scores
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Nurse Communication
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Nursing Services
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Doctor Communication
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Physical Environment
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Pain Control
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Communication about medicines
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Discharge Information
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Overall rating of care/Recommendation of hospital
to others
will help ensure that your hospital delivers the level
of service that results in consistently favorable results.
For
Hospitals That Participate in the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System
(IPPS), Mandatory Reporting for the Annual Payment Update (APU) Necessitates
Greater Attention to Future Scores
Since the
Hospital Compare website shows data from the previous four quarters, hospitals
have the opportunity to greatly improve their overall rankings with each
quarter's surveys. Your hospital must submit a minimum of 300 surveys over a 12
month period. The relatively small sample size (acceptable from Medicare and
non-Medicare patients) means that each survey, each patient experience, has a
significant impact on your overall ranking. Because you have the option of
adding your own questions, but you must submit the 27 questions on the CMS
instrument regarding the quality and effectiveness of your hospital, your teams'
tools, communication habits, and satisfaction will impact your:
- Hospital's
critically important reputation;
- Ability
to attract top talent and funding and keep top performers;
- And
ultimately, your financial fitness.
If you have not
undertaken a formal training program to improve the communication within your
teams and your ability to catch errors before they occur, starting now on a
structured, proven program with clear and measurable goals will improve your
HCAHPS scores in 2009 and beyond. An investment that creates a sustainable
patient-centered culture in your hospital will directly impact your patients'
experiences.
LifeWings Programs Improve Factors That Make a Direct and Measurable Impact On
Your Scores In The Long Term
When evaluating how
to improve your patients' safety and experiences, it's important to apply
resources that have the best chance of providing continuous returns for your
hospital. Our programs are designed to give your teams the tools they need to
ensure dynamic improvements. For example, rather than simply providing you with
generic tools that may be outdated in six months, we teach your teams how to
create their own effective tools that reflect current goals at your hospital.
Implementing LifeWings patient safety programs will improve your patients'
experiences by:
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Improving communication and
teamwork among your physicians, staff, and patients –
Teamwork drives patients' overall
satisfaction better than any other single item. Some systems encourage staff
members to back each other up and support each other, which will probably
improve the "teamwork" score. Our learning from the work we've done over the
past ten years is that telling staff to "back each other up" is good, but you
have to give them the methodology and allow them to practice it for it to really
be meaningful. You must also implement systems that ensure the use of these
skills. This methodology has enabled us to achieve substantial improvements in
patient perception of collaboration (teamwork) between physicians and staff, as
well as quality of care. Our belief is that to permanently improve patient
satisfaction, it's not about the food or parking. It's about communication from
the RN's and MD's, it's about respect shown by staff and physician towards one
another and towards the patient. More effective teams
result in more "would recommend" results for your hospital and ultimately improve
patient safety.
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Reducing undetected and
uncorrected errors that affect your patients and their perception of your
care - HCAHPS results reveal your patient’s willingness to
recommend your hospital to others. LifeWings training gives your teams the
patient
safety tools to cross check one another and correct small slips, trips, and lapses
before they result in
medical errors
and affect your patients' opinion of your care.
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Improving the reliability and
efficiency of your patient care processes - Poor systems affect
the quality of the care your patients receive. Wasted effort, rework, and
delays are seen by your patients and affect their satisfaction survey
responses. LifeWings helps your teams create and implement reliable,
foolproof systems like checklists, standard procedures, and communication
scripting to ensure the right care to the right patient every time.
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Dramatically improving
physician satisfaction - Satisfied physicians are noticed by your
patients.
Physician satisfaction can have an impact on the quality of the
communication and collaboration with staff and patients. Patients will see
and document on their surveys episodes of poor communication due to
frustration, anger, and dissatisfaction. LifeWings training and tools give
your physicians better teams to work with and a better environment in which
to work.
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Reducing nurse turnover so
your patients benefit from consistent care - Nursing services are
rated on surveys reported to HCAHPS. LifeWings training produces documented
improvements in
nurse
retention (with turnover as low as 2%) allowing you to ensure your
patients receive consistent, high quality care from established and
experienced nurses on your staff.
If you are interested in learning more about
how LifeWings programs can create better teams, improve patient safety, reduce
medical errors, and help your hospital create a sustainable culture of safety to
ensure favorable HCAHPS scores, please:
Helpful
Links:
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