HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national, standardized survey of hospital patients. HCAHPS (pronounced “H-caps”) was created to publicly report the patient’s perspective of hospital care. The survey asks a random sample of recently discharged patients about important aspects of their hospital experience.

The HCAHPS results posted on Hospital Compare allow consumers to make comparisons between hospitals, and to compare individual hospitals to state and national averages/benchmarks.

Communication between patients and their doctors is an important part of quality healthcare. A higher score may indicate that a hospital provides a higher level of patient care.

About this measure

The questions asked for this measure are: “During this hospital stay…how often did doctors treat you with courtesy and respect?, … how often did doctors listen carefully to you?, … how often did doctors explain things in a way you could understand?”  Possible responses are Never, Sometimes, Usually, and Always.  The measure reflects the percentage of respondents who answered Always to these questions.

Note: In this case, a higher number is better.