An Associated Press story published today highlights a new CMS (the federal government agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid) advertising campaign to improve quality and transparency for US hospitals. This marks the first year that CMS has publicly released HCAHPS data on hospital patients’ experience with care.

The HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems) survey may begin to build a business case for hospitals to focus more intently on delivering more patient-centered care and information therapy (Ix). NCQA’s (National Committee for Quality Assurance) HEDIS public reporting efforts have dramatically improved health plan performance on a range of quality indicators, and CMS is optimistic that its Hospital Compare tool can do the same for hospitals.

Several HCAHPS questions have the potential to drive Ix and patient-centered HIT initiatives in the inpatient setting. Most notably:

• How often did nurses explain things in a way you could understand? (Q3)
• How often did doctors explain things in a way you could understand? (Q7)
• Before giving you medicine, how often did hospital staff tell you what the medicine was for? (Q16)
• Before giving you medicine, how often did hospital staff describe possible side effects in a way you could understand? (Q17)
• Did you get information in writing about what symptoms or health problems to look out for after you left the hospital? (Q20)

There are other important market drivers of inpatient Ix. JCAHO has existing standards that reinforce the need for Ix, and hospitals have reported to the IxCenter that JCAHO reviewers have been more strongly emphasizing the need to document Ix delivery. Specifically, the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals (CAMH) includes 12 references to atient education as services that JCAHO expects hospitals to instruct patients on during their hospital stay. Among the most relevant patient education items in JCAHO are:

• LD.3.15 – patients admitted to a temporary location must have rights and access to services
• LD.3.120 – leaders plan and support patient education
• PC.6.10 – patient receives education and training specific to patient’s needs
• PC.6.30 – patient receives education and training specific to patient’s abilities

The issue of “aligning incentives” and creating market rewards for Ix is one of the topics that we will be addressing June 12-13 at the 7th Annual Ix Conference, “WIxRED: Next-Generation Patient-Centered Care” at the Newseum in Washington, DC.