As we take a moment to recognize World Kidney Day—March 12, 2020—we are also vastly approaching the Spring 2020 cycle for ICH CAHPS® dialysis facilities.
The ICH CAHPS Survey is a means to engage patients in sharing their experience with the facility and provider. As part of the national move to a value-based, outcomes-driven healthcare delivery model, the survey’s focus is on quality improvement and creating incentives. With a standardized approach to provide transparency and comparability of facilities across the country, the ICH CAHPS Survey is a requirement to obtain the maximum Medicare reimbursement, and it’s no secret that a lot rests on the survey results. Working with an intelligent and supportive survey vendor whose main goal is to look after your facility’s overall health and rating is the secret to your organization’s ongoing success.
Take a tour through the steps in which RMS prepares for each cycle of the ICH CAHPS Survey, and what’s to be expected:
- RMS will conduct a Kick-Off Meeting to detail the entire process and timelines, while our designated ICH CAHPS team will go over all required deliverables and components. This includes both the responsibilities of RMS and the facility (or facilities).
- Each facility will send their logo (for customized facility branding), required signatures, and patient information so RMS can prepare the Introductory Letter mailing and survey sample to begin the surveying process.
- RMS will mail the Introductory Letter to the selected patients in advance of the survey, explaining the purpose of the survey, and letting them know they will be contacted in the near future by the RMS Healthcare team on behalf of the facility.
- For example, in the case of telephone-only surveys, RMS will make up to 10 phone attempts over five to six weeks at various times of the day, on different days of the week. We suggest that each facility provide RMS with a dialysis schedule of each patient so we can customize our call schedule to work around times that the patients are at their dialysis center, since we know they would not be at home to take the call during those hours.
- RMS will create a customized report for each facility detailing the findings on every survey category, benchmarking, and all additional comments that your patients may have provided. More importantly, we include tips and tactics for improving future surveys based on the survey results.
If you are interested in learning more about how RMS can help your facility with the ICH CAHPS Survey, contact our Vice President of Corporate Development, Sandy Baker at 315.635.9802 or email her at SandyB@RMSresults.com.
*CAHPS® Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
About RMS Healthcare
RMS Healthcare, a division of Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS), provides operational support, consulting, and research services—tailoring their expertise to optimize your organization’s performance. They are a leading healthcare team with proven experience and success in patient surveying and practice transformation.
