The goal of the CG-CAHPS® instrument is to allow patients, payers and providers to have an objective evaluation and comparison of the quality of care being delivered by physicians and practices in order to make educated healthcare decisions.
Created by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF), CG-CAHPS is one of a growing number of standardized national quality measures being used to evaluate the performance of medical groups and physicians.
CG-CAHPS has been used in state public reporting projects in Massachusetts, Minnesota and California, along with clinical outcomes data, to report the quality of care provided by local medical groups and practices. The American Board of Medical Specialties is looking at incorporating the surveys into its certification requirements.
This survey tool measures the patient experience at physician offices and medical groups, introducing the same level of transparency and standardization to the medical community that HCAHPS brings to the hospital experience. The surveys below are currently available in English and Spanish and can be translated by NRC Picker into any of language that meets the needs of your patients.
The current survey versions:
- CG-CAHPS 12 Month Survey
- Adult Primary Care
- Adult Specialty Care
- Pediatric Primary Care
- CG-CAHPS Visit Specific
- NRC Picker Integrated CG-CAHPS Surveys
- Adult CG-CAHPS Visit Specific Picker Plus
- Pediatric CG-CAHPS Visit Specific Picker Plus (developed by NRC Picker)
Which Survey Should You Use?
NRC Picker believes that providers should evaluate the care they provide in a manner that allows for results to be tied back to a specific clinical experience to facilitate quality improvement and accountability to the results. We also believe that surveys should be sent to your patients over the course of a year to better reflect the reality of your practice versus a snap shot of your performance at a point in time.
NRC Picker clients that focus on continuous evaluation and quality improvement have begun using the CG-CAHPS Visit Specific survey. This version of CG-CAHPS meets the objectives of feedback linked to a specific clinical experience, overall performance evaluation and ongoing quality improvement performance trending. The provider and staff behaviors evaluated by the CG-CAHPS Visit Specific survey closely mirror NRC Picker’s Physician Office Visit (POV) survey. NRC Picker helps physicians and medical groups to weigh the benefits of becoming an early adopter of the CG-CAHPS standard and the developing comparative database versus using the NRC Picker POV survey with its larger existing comparative database.
Methodologies
There are three AHRQ approved survey methodologies that will allow you to submit your data into the national CAHPS database:
- Mail only
- Telephone only
- Mixed methodology: mail with telephone follow-up
Additionally, NRC Picker can field CG-CAHPS surveys using email, web (hand held, kiosk, etc.), Integrated Voice Response (IVR) and Voice Recognition Technology.
Submission
The targeted number of survey returns has been either 45 surveys per physician or 300 returns per practice or medical group if there is no interest in tracking individual physician performance.
Specifications for submitting data files and other information is available today as part of the CG-CAHPS Survey and Reporting kit. Click here to download it. NRC Picker will continue to inform you about updates on the visit-specific version of the Clinician and Group Survey.
For each approved survey version, the CAHPS database will issue data file specifications for submitting respondent-level data as well as information related to medical practice characteristics and survey administration.
The CAHPS database will not identify physicians and practices by name. These reports will show summary results and will use characteristics, such as physician specialty and size of practice.
CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a U.S. Government agency.