The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is seeking comments on proposed changes to the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Clinician and Group Survey and the CAHPS Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) item set. Additional technical details about the proposed changes are available on the CAHPS website. Comments may be submitted by email sent to: <CAHPS1@ westat.com>, with ‘‘CAHPS Proposed Changes’’ as the subject line, and are due by February 20, 2015.
The proposed changes to the core Clinician and Group Survey are:
- Reduce the survey reference time from the last 12 months to the last 6 months
- Reduce the access composite measure from 5 items to 3 items (“got urgent care appointment”, “got appointment for checkup or routine care”, and “got answer to medical question the same day”)
- Reduce the communication composite measure from 6 items to 4 items (“explains things in a way that is easy to understand”, “listens carefully”, “shows respect for what you have to say”, and “spends enough time”)
- Add a care coordination composite measure (uses two existing measures, “follow up on test results” and “knows important information about medical history”, plus “provider talked about all prescription medicines being taken from PCMH item set)
The proposed changes to the current 18-item PCMH item set are:
- Delete three items on shared decisionmaking (moved to a general set of potential supplemental items)
- Delete two items on attention to mental or emotional health (retains “things that cause worry or stress” and deletes “depression screening” and “personal or family problems”)
- Deletes item on “getting care on evenings, weekends, and holidays”
- Deletes item on “days wait for urgent care”
- Deletes item on “reminders between visits”
- Moves care coordination item “provider talked about all the prescription medicines being taken” to core survey and changes to a response frequency scale rather than a yes/no response; retains “provider informed and up-to-date on care from specialists” as a care coordination item in the PCMH item set
The 6 remaining questions in the PCMH item set would be:
- Provider’s office gave you information about getting care on evenings, weekends, and holidays
- Respondent saw a specialist (screener)
- Provider seemed informed and up-to-date about the care you got from specialists
- Someone in the provider’s office talked with you about specific goals for your health
- Someone in the provider’s office talked with you about things that make it hard for you to take care of your health
- Someone in the provider’s office talked with you about things in your life that worry you or cause you stress
Here is the notice in the Federal Register requesting public comments:
Ignatius Bau 