Leading a hospice organization to deliver quality patient care in the most efficient and cost effective manner requires managing personnel, regulatory, accreditation and other requirements. The amount of requirements can sometimes feel like paperwork comes before patients.
One time-consuming regulatory related task with strict deadlines is keeping track of patients for the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys and the associated penalties for non-participation. Busy hospice professionals need to know that choosing a comprehensive hospice software can save time and improve quality measures.
It Starts with the Vendor
Selecting the right Hospice CAHPS Survey vendor for your organization should come down to utility, benefits and value to the organization.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires that hospice organizations meet the minimum patient threshold for participating in the CAHPS Hospice survey program. CAHPS Hospice surveys are conducted monthly. Caregivers for a hospice patient are contacted no sooner than two months after the patient dies. Organizations must keep track of monthly submissions of patient files and associated timeline.
The vendor will process the patient’s files your organization sends every month and contact the deceased patient’s informal caregivers for their views on the quality of service delivered. It is important to alert all patients and their caregivers that an independent survey organization will be reaching out by mail or telephone to encourage participation.
Survey response data will be sent to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The data is directly tied to meeting the Hospice Quality Reporting Program requirement and administering penalties for non-participation. The survey response data is also reported publicly on Care Compare. This is so consumers can select hospices that meet their needs.
A data-driven CAHPS Hospice Survey vendor includes benefits like an online dashboard. The dashboard allows users to view survey results in real time, allowing organizations to adjust clinician best practices sooner and improve publicly reported measures. As part of a Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) plan, leaders can measure overall performance and best-performing survey categories while tracking identified areas of needed improvement.
It is also possible to monitor hospice competitors in the organization’s geographical area from the dashboard to ensure they gain the necessary market intelligence for long-term success. Best practices and current education are included with each quality measure for your clinicians and members of the QAPI team to conveniently access.
When Your Hospice Software Includes a CAHPS Vendor
Hospice organizations that use Axxess Hospice and AxxessCAHPS have a much shorter to-do list. Instead of downloading and sending patient reports each month, ensuring the two-month deadline is met, these organizations do nothing. Because Axxess Hospice automatically transfers patient records to AxxessCAHPS, the process is quicker, offering organizations survey results sooner.
The only task hospice organizations need to do is monitor the AxxessCAHPS dashboard for data and reports; everything else is done for them. There are no dates to remember and deadlines to track.
This partnership benefits hospice organizations in major ways, allowing them the time to provide care and insights to drive quality and growth.
Axxess Hospice, a cloud-based hospice software, allows for mobile documentation at the point of care, making transferring patient information easier and faster, and offers a direct connection to Axxess CAHPS for all hospice survey needs.