Boost Your Healthcare System’s HCAHPS Rating & Patient Experience with PatientTrak

In your healthcare organization, you may think you’ve checked all the boxes to provide a stellar patient experience. Your HCAHPS survey scores, on the other hand, may tell a different story.    

As patients become more empowered to choose their providers, their satisfaction has risen as a substantial priority in your industry. In fact, scoring on the low end of the 29-question HCAHPS survey can directly impact your reputation and financial health.  

Since HCAHPS scores are vital to your clinic, it’s important to make sure they don’t falter.  

With an innovative solution like PatientTrak, health systems can address the root causes of patient dissatisfaction. To learn more, here’s how you can use PatientTrak to transform the patient experience, streamline processes, and effectively boost your rating.  

Why Is HCAHPS So Important?  

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a national, standardized survey about patients’ hospital stays and visits. The survey was developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It measures patients’ perceptions of their healthcare systems, including communication with doctors and nurses, cleanliness, the overall hospital rating, and more.  

Along with providing insight to improve care, HCAHPS scores also let patients compare hospitals, knowing what to expect of your clinic. Since these scores are public, they can impact your reputation.   

Likewise, these scores play a role in calculating value-based incentive payments under the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program. This means they can affect the financial health of your organization—leaving your organization at the mercy of these scores.  

Overall, HCAHPS serves three broad goals in health care:   

  • Standardizing feedback: HCAHPS provides a consistent metric for evaluating patient care experiences, enabling fair comparisons among hospitals.  
  • Motivating improvement: Public reporting of HCAHPS scores drives hospitals to enhance their service quality, prioritizing patient satisfaction.  
  • Increasing accountability: Because HCAHPS scores are transparent, they hold healthcare providers accountable for the quality of care they deliver.  

With these goals in mind, it’s clear that HCAHPS is more than a regulatory requirement. It influences every aspect of your organization, ultimately deciding the overall success of your clinic.    

Improve Patient Flow to Eliminate Frustrations 

To improve your HCAHPS score, it’s helpful to address one of the root causes of patient frustrations: wait times. Recognizing this, PatientTrak provides an interactive solution to better measure, monitor, and improve patient flow in real-time. With easier flow, you can minimize frustrations and make visits more pleasant to attend.  

Pre-visit: Even before a patient steps foot in your facility, you can make the process easier. With online scheduling and pre-visit registration, you can drastically reduce the administrative strain often associated with manual registration procedures. This increases your operational efficiency, resulting in decreased wait times for patients—offering a more favorable first impression of your services.  

Arrivals: Once your patients arrive, you want to maintain that positive experience. PatientTrak offers digital check-in capabilities, including mobile sign-ins, QR codes, and kiosk sign-ins. Faster check-in eliminates the need for long queues or crowded waiting areas. With a streamlined arrival process, you can increase patient comfort and satisfaction from the get-go.  

During the visit: Even after check-in, you can ensure a positive patient experience. PatientTrak’s real-time tracking system allows your staff to monitor the patient journey, from arrival to discharge. This efficient tracking reduces uncertainty and miscommunication while enabling hospital staff to streamline workflow, manage resources effectively, and decrease overall cycle times. As a result, patients spend less time waiting and more time interacting with healthcare providers, leading to higher satisfaction rates.  

Remember, a smooth patient flow doesn’t just benefit the patient. It also improves your staff’s ability to manage their workloads, leading to better performance overall. With fewer interruptions and shorter wait times, you can make every moment in your clinic count towards a better HCAHPS score.   

Forge Closer Connections with Enhanced Patient Engagement 

If patients are disengaged in their clinical care, they may not adhere to treatment. As a result, they risk experiencing poorer health outcomes. Naturally, this can affect your HCAHPS score since patients aren’t receiving the prompt, courteous attention they need. But with an engagement platform like PatientTrak, you can motivate patients to take a more active role in their care:  

Scheduling convenience: Patients can book their appointments online anytime, anywhere. This freedom not only makes them happier but also encourages better adherence to treatment plans and follow-up visits.  

Appointment reminders: You can help patients keep healthcare top-of-mind with automated appointment reminders. These timely prompts cut back on missed appointments, ensuring patients stay on track with their treatment plan. It also makes it easier for your staff to manage their schedules.  

Communication during care: It’s not just about making an appointment; it’s about what happens during it. PatientTrak’s system offers real-time communication capabilities, enabling staff to keep patients and their family members informed throughout the care process. By addressing concerns promptly and keeping patients in the loop, you enhance patient satisfaction, trust, and overall engagement.  

Post-visit engagement: The care journey doesn’t end when the patient leaves your facility. PatientTrak allows you to create a comprehensive and supportive post-visit experience. Via text messages, you can easily send aftercare instructions, satisfaction surveys, and medication reminders. This ongoing communication reinforces patient engagement, encourages feedback, and supports a seamless transition from hospital to home.  

By focusing on the patient experience and considering patient feeling at every step, you show that your organization values patients’ wellbeing. As a result, your reputation and score will flourish.  

Start Improving Your HCAHPS Score with PatientTrak

Effective patient engagement and streamlined patient flow are no longer just desirable qualities—they are critical factors in healthcare provision. With PatientTrak, your organization can elevate these aspects to new heights, increasing both patient satisfaction and your HCAHPS scores.   

PatientTrak focuses on key areas to boost HCAHPS scores, thereby improving healthcare providers’ performance, financial stability, and reputation. Through this process, you’ll improve patient satisfaction and instill a culture of continuous improvement within your organization.  

If you’re ready to improve your patient experience and HCAHPS performance, speak to one of our experts today! 

References 

4 Tips for Improving HCAHPS scores. (2017, August 15). Wolters Kluwer. https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/4-tips-for-improving-hcahps-scores 

8 Tips for Engaging Patients Before, During and Post-visit. (2022, October 17). PatientTrak. https://www.patienttrak.net/news/tips-for-engaging-patients-before-during-and-post-visit/ 

HCAHPS: Patients’ Perspectives of Care Survey | CMS. (2021, December 1). Cms.gov; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HospitalQualityInits/HospitalHCAHPS#:~:text=HCAHPS%20(pronounced%20%22H-caps 

Marzban, S., Najafi, M., Agolli, A., & Ashrafi, E. (2022). Impact of Patient Engagement on Healthcare Quality: A Scoping Review. Journal of Patient Experience, 9, 237437352211254. https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735221125439 

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