The HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) Survey is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients' perspectives of hospital care. HCAHPS (pronounced “H-caps”), also known as the CAHPS® Hospital Survey*, is a 29-item survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perceptions of their hospital experience.

Since 2008, HCAHPS has allowed valid comparisons to be made across hospitals locally, regionally and nationally

In April 2015, CMS added HCAHPS Star Ratings to its public reporting web site. HCAHPS Star Ratings summarize all survey responses for each HCAHPS measure and present these in a simple format familiar to consumers, making it easier to use the information and spotlight excellence in healthcare quality. HCAHPS Star Ratings are updated quarterly. Eleven HCAHPS Star Ratings appear in the Provider Data Catalog (https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/): one for each of the 10 publicly reported HCAHPS measures, plus the HCAHPS Summary Star Rating, which combines the 10 HCAHPS measure star ratings. The HCAHPS Summary Star Rating is also displayed on the Care Compare Web site, where it is labelled “Patient Survey Rating” (https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/).

CMS’s Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (Hospital VBP) program links a portion of IPPS hospital payment from CMS to performance on a set of quality measures. HCAHPS is the basis for the Person and Community Engagement (PCE) domain, which accounts for 25% of a hospital’s Hospital VBP Total Performance Score (TPS).

Eight HCAHPS measures, or “dimensions,” are included in Hospital VBP: six HCAHPS composite measures (Communication with Nurses, Communication with Doctors, Staff Responsiveness, Communication about Medicines, Discharge Information, and Care Transition); a dimension that combines the Cleanliness and Quietness items; and one global item