CAHPS Child Hospital Survey Now Available

The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Child Hospital Survey (Child HCAHPS) assesses the experiences of pediatric patients (age 17 and younger) with inpatient care through responses from their parents or guardians. It complements the adult hospital survey, which asks adult inpatients about their experiences. Child HCAHPS covers most of the topics addressed by the adult version of the hospital survey as well as topics that are particularly relevant to pediatric care.

Go to: https://www.cahps.ahrq.gov/surveys-guidance/hospital/about/child_hp_survey.html

AHRQ-CMS CHIPRA Centers of Excellence in Pediatric Quality Measurement

Go to: http://www.ahrq.gov/policymakers/chipra/index.html#Core2

The CAHPS Child Hospital Survey (Child HCAHPS) assesses the experiences of pediatric patients (17 and younger) and their parents or guardians with inpatient care. It complements the Adult Hospital Survey, which asks adult inpatients about their experiences. Child HCAHPS covers most of the topics addressed by the Adult version of the Hospital Survey as well as topics that are particularly relevant to pediatric care. It was developed by the Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement at Boston Children’s Hospital in partnership with AHRQ’s CAHPS Consortium.

To download the Child Hospital Survey and related documentation, go to: Get the Hospital Survey and Instructions. Only the Adult version of HCAHPS is implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and available on www.hcahpsonline.org.

Purpose of the Child Survey

The main purpose of the Child Hospital Survey is to address the need to assess and improve the experiences of pediatric inpatients and their parents. Like other CAHPS surveys, this questionnaire focuses on aspects of pediatric inpatient care that are important to patients and their parents, and for which patients and their parents are generally the best source of information. The survey results are expected to be useful to everyone with a need for information on the quality of pediatric inpatient care, including patients, parents, hospitals, health plans, insurers, and policy makers.

Patients and parents can use the information to help make better and more informed choices about inpatient care.
Hospitals, health plans, insurers, and policy makers can use the survey results for quality improvement initiatives. To learn more about using the survey for quality improvement, go to Improve Patients' Experiences with Hospitals.

Quality Measures from the Child Hospital Survey

The Child Hospital Survey produces 18 measures of patient experience: 11 composite measures and 7 single-item measures, including an overall rating of the hospital. Composite measures combine two or more survey questions that are statistically and conceptually related.

The measures are listed below, organized by topic:

Communication with Parent

Communication between you and your child’s nurses (composite measure)
Communication between you and your child’s doctors (composite measure)
Communication about your child’s medicines (composite measure)
Keeping you informed about your child’s care (composite measure)
Privacy when talking with doctors, nurses, and other providers (single-item measure)
Preparing you and your child to leave the hospital (composite measure)
Keeping you informed about your child’s care in the Emergency Room (single-item measure)

Communication with Child

How well nurses communicate with your child (composite measure)
How well doctors communicate with your child (composite measure)
Involving teens in their care (composite measure)

Attention to Safety and Comfort

Preventing mistakes and helping you report concerns (composite measure)
Helping your child feel comfortable (composite measure)
Responsiveness to the call button (single-item measure)
Paying attention to your child’s pain (single-item measure)

Hospital Environment

Cleanliness of hospital room (single-item measure)
Quietness of hospital room (single-item measure)

Global Rating

Overall rating (single-item measure)
Recommend hospital (single-item measure)

Brief History

The Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement at Boston Children’s Hospital partnered with the CAHPS Consortium to develop the Child Hospital Survey. Funding was provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) through the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) Pediatric Quality Measures Program (PQMP). The survey was submitted to AHRQ and CMS in February 2014.

Learn about the development of the Child Hospital Survey.