Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality May 9, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is providing the opportunity for hospitals, vendors, and other interested parties to voluntarily test the 27-item Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS[reg]) instrument suggested by the National Quality Forum's Review Committee. The purpose of this project is to provide another opportunity to the hospital industry to use the revised draft of the HCAHPS[reg] instrument with the option to add items to the instrument, if desired. It should be noted that the HCAHPS[reg] instrument may undergo further refinement prior to finalization for the national implementation effort as a result of the National Quality Forum (NQF) Consensus process. In effect, this project provides an occasion to test items that survey vendors, hospitals, and others wish to add to the HCAHPS[reg] instrument and to evaluate the impact of integrating HCAHPS into the instruments currently being used, as well as to try out and evaluate the methods of data collection prior to national implementation of HCAHPS[reg]. After permission to use the instrument is granted by AHRQ, a site or sites may field the instrument until the start of the ``dry run'' of the survey, which is expected in the Summer/Fall of 2005. As part of the dry run, hospitals and vendors will begin collecting HCAHPS data and transmitting it to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), but it will not be publicly reported. For more information about this project or to download an application for authorization, please visit the CAHPS User Network Web site at http: //www.cahps-sun.org.