Human Skills Training and “HCAHPS” – How it affects the bottom line
Coming Soon To A Hospital Near You!
HCAHPS – what is it, and why is everyone making such a big deal of it? It stands for ‘Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems’ and it is part of the Affordable Care Act. It means millions of dollars to healthcare provider systems here in the states, and human skills training will move the numbers up!
The intent of the HCAHPS initiative is to provide a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives on hospital care – meaning their personal satisfaction with the delivery of that care.
There are 9 areas assessed via HCAHPS, and only one might be interpreted as clinical in nature; they are:
1. Communication with doctors
2. Communication with nurses
3. Responsiveness of hospital staff
4. Pain management
5. Communication about medicines
6. Discharge information
7. Cleanliness of the hospital environment
8. Quietness of the hospital environment
9. Transition of care
By mandate, how well a hospital does in each area – in relation to peer institutions – can mean millions in additional profit. Provider institutions are essentially required to put up their own money, and then the higher performing among them receive their ante back and then the higher performing among them receive their ante back and then some. Low performing institutions lose their wager, and customer service training can move the needle…I’ve seen it happen.
We have two examples, two different departments within client organizations, in which we’ve generated improvements in HCAHPS relevant evaluation. One department was an Orthopedics floor, and the other was the Emergency department – both in a large urban hospital within a hospital system that employs over 20,000 people.
What were the scores and what happened to them? Within 90 days of deploying our human skills training and development we saw the following results in evaluation scores on a 1-100 scale:
Area (Emergency) From — To
Courtesy 82.8 — 90.5
Attention to Needs 79.1 — 84.7
Friendliness 74.7 — 80.6
Pain Control 74.3 — 76.8
Area (Ortho) From — To
Noise Level 65.0 — 75.8
Attention to Needs 80.7 — 89.5
Friendliness 83.3 — 90.6
Pain Control 77.7 — 88.7
Let’s face it, the healthcare marketplace is spring-loaded for tension right now. The remedy in so many industries seems hi-tech / no-touch, but that doesn’t apply to healthcare.
We can’t engineer the human being out of the business model – we must count on that very resource to make the difference, and what we do in training and development is the catalyst. You might say that’s the same in any industry, but in healthcare delivery they are betting their own money on it.
-Don Brown
don@donbrown.org
Don Brown dedicates his career to ‘helping people with people’ in leadership, sales and customer service. Bilingual and experienced at the executive and line-level alike, you see the results of his work across dozens of industries, including brewing, automotive, airline, banking and medical equipment.
Speaking, writing, coaching and selling to the best – Ford Motor Company, Anheuser-Busch, United Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Jaguar Cars, Hilton Hotels and many, many more – Don takes great pride in long-standing customer relationships (some running well over twenty years).
