It’s important to start by reiterating our stance on building and measuring true patient experience.
An organization that creates exceptional and enduring experiences starts with leadership deeply understanding the needs and desires of patients, families, and staff. Empathize with the people that walk in and out of your hospital on any given day, through the main entrance or not. This will direct your focus to a few core values like communication and respect. These values are permanent, they are not amended or mutated every couple of years. Try to do what is right in these areas, reflect often and honestly, and you’ll be heading in the right direction. Survey results will follow.
With that said, in building Familyfirst over the last half-decade, we have long appreciated the importance of shared national measures, public reporting, and financial incentives that CMS provides with HCAHPS.
The updates to the 2025 HCAHPS include several notable changes. To two of which we would like to add footnotes.
[1] In conversations with hundreds of patient experience leaders, we’ve long accepted an unspoken truth: Family members are often the ones filling out satisfaction surveys. Now, CMS has removed the regulatory prohibition against this practice. We expect this formal acknowledgement will encourage hospitals to more explicitly design and market their family experience programs. Hospitals can lift up their family-member-centered programs without compromising their core commitment to patient-first care.
[2] Revised survey items about care team coordination and information sharing only double down on the critical role of communication in modern healthcare delivery. Whether evaluating staff collaboration, discharge planning, or medication management, families can only assess these elements by that which reaches them, through consistent, clear communication channels.
Our north star remains building tools that help families who are supporting loved ones in the hospital. We will continue to direct our focus here and try to craft the meaningful moments that make them exceptional. In support of our vision to scale these moments, it's encouraging to see regulatory frameworks evolve to better reflect the importance of family engagement.
