Boosting HCAHPS with a Custom Whiteboard

How Your Bottom Line is Affected by HCAHPS

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or HCAHPS is a random survey given to the patients of participating hospitals to measure patient satisfaction. Public reporting of the HCAHPS in 2008, gave way to hospital rivalries and better hospital service. (HCAHPS: Patients' Perspectives of Care Survey)

Why Whiteboards Work

Ultimately, hospitals receive a Total Performance Score (TPS) based on scores in 4 domains: Clinical Outcomes, Safety, Person and Community Engagement, and Efficiency and Cost Reduction. HCAHPS plays a major role in the awarded TPS. A positive relationship is statistically significant between patient satisfaction, TPS, HCAHPS score, awarded IPPS payments. Hence, your hospital's HCAHPS score can significantly increase or decrease your Medicare reimbursement payment.  (Fact sheet CMS Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program results for fiscal year 2020)

Specifically, the HCAHPS score can affect up to 2% of your IPPS payment.  In 2019, just about 3,960 hospitals that participated in the IPPS system received a collective "$8.4 billion in uncompensated care (UC) payments, which is about $78 million more than in FY19." (Rich Daly, 12 details to know about The IPPS final rule) A fluctuation of 2% can mean an estimated $2.3 million gain or loss.

This carrot and stick approach incentivizes hospitals to increase their HCAHPS scores with a reward of around $2.3 million from the CMS or a deterrent of the same amount in accounts payable to the CMS.

Educating your patients is a critical factor that influences hospital consumer satisfaction. In their time of uncertainty and anxiety, hospital staff need to prioritize excellent provider-patient communication. In an article published by Becker's Health Care, 2 out of the 5 ways to boost HCAHPS scores involved a strong focus on communication, specifically with a whiteboard. Andrew A. Brooks, MD, Chief Medical Officer recommends whiteboards to raise HCAHP scores,

“...hospitals can also educate patients via written instructions ...on a whiteboard placed within a patient’s eyesight. Educating patients during transitions of care... is critically important.” (Brooks, A. A.)

In the peer reviewed Healthcare Journal BMJ Open Quality, a study proves that visual aids improve physician identification and overall patient satisfaction. Furthermore, "68% of patients with the attending name correctly listed on their whiteboard were able to correctly identify the attending physician." (Wahlberg, K.) Another study published in BMJ confirmed that the effective use of a whiteboard supports patient experience and improves provider-patient communication.

The effective use of a whiteboard is defined by "customized whiteboard designs to align with the needs of each clinical area, specifically the Maternal and Child units and the ICU..." Moreover, whiteboards are regarded as useful by the "80% of patients and families [who] looked at the whiteboards for information." (Bañez, C.)

The key takeaway is that informing patients about procedures, staff identification, and care plans with the effective customization of whiteboards for each clinical department and frequent updating and messaging on these whiteboards can significantly increase your patients' comfort and lower anxiety. Customizable whiteboards are simply the easiest and most effective tool to help your patients feel more satisfied with the care they receive at your hospital or LTCH.

Top 4 Hospital Board Designs

According to the study published in BMJ Open Quality, customizing your boards to align with the goals of each clinical department are necessary for effective messaging and communication, which in turn improve patient satisfaction HCAHPS scores. After serving the market for over 30 years, we've compiled the 4 most popular hospital boards designs here.

The Patient Bedside Board Our standard patient bedside boards can be customized with any soothing background proven to accelerate healing.	The ICU Board The Intensive Care Unit whiteboards contain spaces for medications, treatments, procedure schedules, emergency information or any metric that needs close monitoring.
The Total Performance Quality Board Our Total Quality Management boards can help your hospital foster a trustworthy name. This design has a space for HCAHPS score for high transparency.	The Maternity Board Whiteboards are especially critical in maternity units where communication needs to be at it's highest between health care providers and birth givers.

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Hospital Best Sellers

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• Custom printed to your specification using color fusing technology that resists fading
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• Satin Anodized Aluminum Trim
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• Prevents marker ink penetration that causes ghosting
• Sizes from 18” to 8’
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Sources:

• Bañez, C., Gelmi, S., Bansil, N., Drebit, R., Solomon, S., Yoon, J., Burkoski, V., Collins, B., & Hall, T. (2021, January). Applying local context to design and implement patient room whiteboards. BMJ open quality. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7798407/.
• Brooks, A. A. (2014, April 7). Going from good to great care - 5 ways to Boost HCAHPS Scores. Becker's Hospital Review. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/going-from-good-to-great-care-5-ways-to-boost-hcahps-scores.html.
• Fact sheet cms Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program results for fiscal year 2020. CMS. (n.d.). https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/cms-hospital-value-based-purchasing-program-results-fiscal-year-2020.