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.

Pain management is important to healing and to help patients comply with treatment recommendations. 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 was your pain well controlled?, and how often did the hospital staff do everything they could to help you with your pain?” Possible responses are Never, Sometimes, Usually, and Always.  The measure reflects the percentage of respondents who answered Always to these questions.

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