The Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) survey just shifted from voluntary to mandatory. With some vendors offering real-time data access, you may already be seeing survey results.  

Healthcare is a partnership between the provider guiding the healthcare journey and the patient taking steps toward better health. Engaged patients have the knowledge, confidence, and skills to take those steps. They understand their healthcare and are more likely to take an active role in it.

Digital patient engagement solutions have many benefits — prompting 78% of leaders nationwide to invest in them. They can be convenient ways to automate, stay in touch, send reminders, and give patients a direct line to their care teams. 

Actively engaged patients understand their health well and feel empowered to take proactive health management measures. Daily decisions like eating a healthy diet, taking medications correctly, or getting exercise come naturally, leading to better outcomes.

Hospitalized patients often struggle with sleep due to a variety of factors, like pain, noise, and medication changes. Yet rest is crucial to recovery, so it’s important to facilitate restfulness during hospitalization. It’s so important, in fact, that the new HCAHPS survey added two new questions asking specifically about rest.

Big changes came to the HCHAPS survey on January 1, 2025. You have probably heard the buzz about the new questions, but that isn’t the only update. The HCAHPS project team also made a number of administrative changes designed to make the survey more relevant and to help capture data from underrepresented groups. 

The healthcare landscape is constantly evolving, so it’s not surprising that CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is changing the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey to modernize it for 2025.

As a key part of the patient experience, and the focus of multiple HCAHPS questions, staff responsiveness can make or break the quality of a hospital stay. 

The impact of the patient experience in healthcare goes beyond HCAHPS scores. When patients have a good experience, they build relationships with the care team. They are more likely to be engaged in their health. They learn better and make healthy choices.

Around 50% of patients don't get the full benefit of medical treatments because of poor compliance.

While it’s easy to assume that patients who don’t follow doctors’ instructions lack the desire to improve their health, research points to patient education rather than motivation as a driver of non-compliance. In fact, studies show a significant increase in compliance with better patient education.

A bedside shift report is a change-of-shift report between off-going and on-coming nurses that takes place at the patient's bedside. It's a key part of the patient's care plan and aims to improve a patient’s safety, understanding of their health conditions, and engagement.

Regular rounding by nursing staff has long been a hospital best practice. Rounding anchors patients throughout their stay with a predictable routine and improved care. It also helps staff.

More and more research shows that bedside conversations with patients can improve both their experience and their outcomes.

For an effective, low-cost way to improve patient experience and boost satisfaction scores, look no further than a whiteboard. A whiteboard in the patient's room is an anchor point, full of essential details to keep patients informed and engaged throughout their stay.