Whether you are brand new to CAHPS® or a seasoned-veteran, you should always look to work with a CAHPS vendor that fits your organization’s needs. Are you a small healthcare organization that needs to be walked-through the process, consulted with on the findings, and receive assistance to initiating next steps? There’s a CAHPS vendor for you. Are you a large healthcare organization that has its own internal team to develop action items based on the data but you need comparison data from other similar large healthcare systems across the region, state, and country? There’s a CAHPS vendor for you.

If you are in the process of hiring a CAHPS vendor for either Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS®), Home Health CAHPS (HHCAHPS®), Clinician and Group CAHPS (CGCAHPS®), In-Center Hemodialysis CAHPS (ICHCAHPS®), here are 4 items to consider directly from the AHRQ website:

• A CAHPS vendor will ensure neutrality and credibility of results – using a third-party vendor for any research including CAHPS will guarantee objectivity of results. The third-party works separately outside of your organization to collect unbiased data from patients and submits those results.

• A CAHPS vendor can provide you with better data quality at a lower cost – because third-party vendors work for a large number of healthcare organizations, processes, mailings, data entry, reporting, and analysis can all be streamlined. This creates significant cost advantages for you if you were to compare this to managing the entire CAHPS process in-house. CAHPS vendors are experienced in survey analysis and can chart findings that are easy to understand, interpret, and act upon.

• Using a CAHPS vendor will ensure compliance with CAHPS protocols – following all of the CAHPS data collection and submission protocol can seem like a daunting task. Using an experienced CAHPS vendor will ensure all standards and protocols are met for your healthcare organization.

• Are you seeking NCQA accreditation? A third-party vendor is required. You may want to conduct CAHPS in-house but if you are seeking NCQA accreditation and reimbursement, an outside vendor is needed. NCQA has a certification process for its CAHPS vendors which requires the vendor to submit results for HEDIS® and accreditation purposes.

Other CAHPS surveys on the horizon include Emergency Department CAHPS (EDCAHPS® – coming in 2015), Hospice CAHPS, CAHPS Survey for Accountable Care Organizations, and Ambulatory Surgery Center CAHPS.

Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) has a dedicated RMS Healthcare division which specializes in CAHPS administration and reporting. Our team can consult with you on all CAHPS processes and determine if we are the right fit for your organization. If you are interested in hiring a CAHPS vendor contact our Business Development Director Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling 1-866-567-5422.