Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) In-Center Hemodialysis Survey (ICH CAHPS)

This is a survey-based measure and one of the family of surveys called CAHPS Surveys (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems)that are focused on patient experience. The questionnaire asks End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients receiving in-center hemodialysis care about the services and quality of care that they experience. Patients assess their dialysis providers, including nephrologists and medical and non-medical staff, the quality of dialysis care they receive, and information sharing about their disease. The survey is conducted twice a year, in the spring and fall with adult in-center hemodialysis patients. Publicly-reported measures focus on the proportion of survey respondents at each facility who choose the most favorable responses.

Three multi-item measures:
a. M1: Nephrologists’ Communication and Caring (NCC)
b. M2: Quality of Dialysis Center Care and Operations (QDCCO)
c. M3: Providing Information to Patients (PIP)
Three Global items:
a. M4: Rating of the nephrologist
b. M5: Rating of dialysis center staff
c. M6: Rating of the dialysis facility

The first three measures are created from six or more questions from the survey that are reported as one measure score. The three global items are single-item measures using a scale of 0 to 10 to report the respondent’s assessment.

The results are reported on Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) on the Medicare.gov website.