How pain management is evaluated in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey is changing, thanks in part to the advocacy efforts of the Society of Hospital Medicine’s public policy committee.
Based on input from SHM and other organizations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decided that the way the survey was worded concerning pain management could be leading to unintended consequences, particularly in light of the opioid epidemic.
In a video interview recorded during HM17, John Biebelhausen, MD, MBA, discussed how SHM worked with the CMS to help “improve the HCAHPS survey to make a better patient satisfaction tool for our assessments and also eliminate some of the competing pressures the physician might face.”
Dr. Biebelhausen is a hospitalist and physician lead for quality reporting at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle. He had no relevant disclosures.hospitalist and Physician Lead for Quality Reporting.