After a hospital stay, American patients may receive a federal survey called HCAHPS. It asks: “During this hospital stay, how often did nurses treat you with courtesy and respect?” It asks how often “the area around your room” was “quiet at night.” It also asks patients to rate the hospital from 0 to 10, and: “Would you recommend this hospital to your friends and family?”
The federal agency that runs Medicare introduced the survey in October 2006. It first published results in March 2008. As of 2022, about 5,100 patients completed it every day. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 tied it to payment. HCAHPS has counted toward Medicare’s Hospital Value-Based Purchasing payments since discharges in October 2012. As of 2022, its domain made up 25 percent of a hospital’s score.