Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Sep;50(9 Suppl 2):S12-21.
doi: 10.1097/MLR.0b013e31826524a0.

Development of items to assess patients' health literacy experiences at hospitals for the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospital Survey

Beverly A Weidmer  1 , Cindy Brach, Mary E Slaughter, Ron D Hays
Affiliations

Development of items to assess patients' health literacy experiences at hospitals for the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospital Survey

Beverly A Weidmer et al. Med Care. 2012 Sep.

Abstract

Background: The complexity of health information frequently exceeds patients' skills to understand and use it. Improvement in hospital communication has the potential to improve the quality of care.

Objective: To develop a set of items to supplement the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospital Survey (HCAHPS) to assess how well hospitals communicate health information to inpatients.

Methods: We conducted an environmental scan and obtained input from stakeholders to identify domains and survey items, and cognitively tested the item set in English and Spanish. We administered the items to a random sample of adult hospital patients using mail and telephone data collection. We estimate item-scale correlations for hypothesized multi-item composites, internal consistency reliability for composites, correlations among composites, and regressed global rating of the hospital and a would you recommend the hospital items on HCAHPS existing core and the new composites to evaluate the unique contribution of each to these "bottom-line" measures.

Results: A total of 1013 surveys were obtained (55% response rate). With some exceptions, correlations between items and scales were consistent with the hypothesized item clusters. Three composites were identified: (1) communication about tests; (2) communication about how to care for self and medicines; and (3) communication about forms.

Conclusions: This study provides support for the measurement properties of the HCAHPS Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy. It can serve as both a measure of whether healthcare providers in a hospital setting have communicated effectively with their patients and as a tool for quality improvement.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS) [Accessed May 15, 2012];Fact sheet. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. AHRQ Publication No. 00-PO47. Available at: https://www.cahps.ahrq.gov/About-CAHPS/CAHPS-Program.aspx.
    1. Goldstein E, Farquhar M, Crofton C, et al. Measuring hospital care from the patients’ perspective: an overview of the CAHPS Hospital Survey development process. Health Serv Res. 2005 Dec;40(6 Pt 2):1977–95. [Research Support, U.S. Gov’t, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov’t, P.H.S.] - PMC - PubMed
    1. Giordano LA, Elliott MN, Goldstein E, et al. Development, implementation, and public reporting of the HCAHPS survey. Med Care Res Rev. 2010 Feb;67(1):27–37. - PubMed
    1. Weidmer B, Brach C, Hays RH. Development and Evaluation of CAHPS® Survey Items Assessing How Well Health Care Providers Address Health Literacy. Medical Care. 2012 In press. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Koh H, Berwick D, Clancy C, et al. Forthcoming New Federal Policy Initiatives To Boost Health Literacy Can Help The Nation Move Beyond The Cycle Of Costly ‘Crisis Care. Health Affairs - PMC - PubMed

Publication types