For inpatient research, HealthStream uses the HCAHPS tool that CMS developed in association with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Harvard Medical School, American Institutes for Research (AIR) and RAND. For non-inpatient research, the following steps summarize the process HealthStream Research used to develop our HCAHPS-aligned survey tools:
· Review of literature in order to identify current issues
· Item construction based on literature review
· Interviews with HealthStream consultants and experts in the field for evaluating the item pool and the suggestion of additional items
· Multiple revisions of the draft survey
· Review in the field by experts and practitioners
· Additional survey revisions
· Pilot test survey with more than 3,000 patients from 130 hospitals
· Analysis of pilot data through various psychometric techniques such as:
o Factor analysis
o Multiple regression
o Coefficient alpha
o Discriminant and convergent validity
· Item reduction from pilot data analyses based on initial psychometrics
· Finalization of CORE surveys
· Final review by HealthStream consultants
HealthStream Research has aligned all patient research, (inpatient, outpatient, ED, clinical office patient, etc.) to the CAHPS survey initiative. HealthStream Research firmly believes that CAHPS surveys will continue to be expanded by CMS. By aligning our patient surveys to the HCAHPS instrument, clients of HealthStream Research will remain prepared for upcoming CMS roll-outs of additional surveys government mandates. This has already been proven with our Home Health survey. HealthStream Research developed a Home Health survey aligned with the HCAHPS survey, and when CMS later released the official Home Health survey, there was a high level of similarity between the survey we developed and the CMS survey.
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