SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Comparing Hcahps and Institutional Survey Responses From Hospitalized Patients

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<strong>Main finding:</strong> <strong>Press Ganey HCAHPS surveys may be missing important parts of the patient experience.</strong>

In this study of hospitalized general medicine patients at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the researchers compared two survey systems:

- the <strong>Press Ganey (PG) HCAHPS</strong> survey
- the hospital’s own <strong>Hospitalist Project (HP)</strong> phone survey

They found that people who answered either survey were more likely to be <strong>older</strong>, <strong>White</strong>, <strong>commercially insured</strong>, <strong>not on Medicaid</strong>, and had <strong>shorter hospital stays</strong> than the overall eligible patient group. However, <strong>HP respondents looked more like the full patient population</strong> than PG respondents did.

A key result was that patients who were <strong>easier to reach</strong> by phone were more likely to give a better rating. Patients who answered after just <strong>one call</strong> were more likely to say the hospital was <strong>“Excellent”</strong> than patients who needed <strong>multiple follow-up calls</strong>. This suggests that <strong>harder-to-reach patients may have had worse experiences</strong>, which can be missed by surveys with lower response rates.

After adjusting for demographics, the difference remained: patients who responded to <strong>both</strong> HP and PG were <strong>35% more likely</strong> to rate the hospital as <strong>“Excellent”</strong> than those who responded to the phone survey alone.

<strong>Bottom line:</strong> <strong>Survey response bias matters.</strong> The <strong>HCAHPS/Press Ganey approach may overrepresent happier patients</strong>, while the hospital’s more intensive phone survey may capture a more complete picture of what patients really think.

Asset Subtitle

Andrew W. Schram

Meta Tag

Author List Andrew W. Schram, David O. Meltzer, Thomas J. Best

Category Research

Concept Patient Experience Survey

Concept Institutional Phone Survey

Concept Press Ganey HCAHPS Survey

Concept Hospitalized Patient

Concept Demographics

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization The University of Chicago

Presenting Author Andrew W. Schram

Track Outcomes Research

Keywords

Press Ganey

HCAHPS

patient experience

survey response bias

hospitalized patients

Hospitalist Project

phone survey

patient satisfaction

response rates

healthcare quality

Patient Experience Survey

Institutional Phone Survey

Press Ganey HCAHPS Survey

Hospitalized Patient

Demographics