What is this Press-Ganey business?

[grandmawrinkle]

Never heard of it until I started using this site. I've seen it referred to a bunch of times on here. My facility doesn't use this, so I have no clue. I googled it -- apparently it is some sort of QA/QI company that sends out surveys to patient post-discharge....and what exactly do the hospitals do with this information? From what I've seen on here, it makes nurses lives miserable.

So internal QA/QI departments aren't good enough anymore?

[hmckenzie]

Not sure about hospitals but in home health we were forced to do this. The governement wants ratings data so that they can inform people about quality including patient ratings of quality. We always sent our own surveys out but were told that we had to choose certain companies to do this in a certain way. I guess they want to insure objectivity in reporting. I know they were fighting this, not sure if it has been resolved.

Whether the hospitals are using Press Ganey or another data collection survey company to collect patient satisfaction scores, the facility was required beginning with July 2007 discharges to collect this information as a Medicare Certified Healthcare Provider.

They could have opted out of this requirement however beginning in 2008 their reimbursement rate from Medicare would have then been reduced by several percentage points which is why most decided to participate. You can thank Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for this requirement.

For more information regarding the required questions on the survey and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers (HCAHPS) visit http://www.hcahpsonline.org/files/HCAHPS%20Fact%20Sheet,%20revised1,%203-31-09.pdf.

You can also see the hospital compare ratings as published by CMS at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/hospital-search.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1. Look up your facility and see how it rates.

So while the discussion on this is about Press Ganey know that CMS and another organization National Quality Foundation (NQF) are the forces that are impacting the quality and daily operations at the facility level.

I have to disagree. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandated to hospitals that the survey had to be completed by anyone above the age of 18 and they DO NOT have to have Medicare coverage. I am surprised that when the proposed regulations came out why hospitals did not challenge this requirement.

In Home Health this requirement was challenged during the proposed regulations process in 2009 with the argument that if Medicare is not paying the bill why should we be required to survey NONMedicare patients. At this point in time, home health patient satisfaction scores are based entirely on Medicare patients.

Interesting how CMS and its regulations impact the entire industry. It is easier to implement across the board then trying to change practices to address only certain insurance requirements or segments of the population ie Seniors.

So for home health the satisfaction survey is called Home Health Care CAHPS Survey and more information can be found at https://homehealthcahps.org/

You can also see the home healthcare compare ratings as published by CMS at site.

Press Ganey is also a big vendor for home health as well. However CMS has "credentialed" or "approved" close to 40 organizations to support the patient satisfaction survey. As you can see this is a booming industry.

[losbozos]

Ck out this from JAMA: JAMA Network | JAMA Internal Medicine | The Cost of Satisfaction: A National Study of Patient Satisfaction, Health Care Utilization, Expenditures, and Mortality

It shows an increase in mortality, cost of high satisfaction scores.

I feel my quality of care isn't what it once was.