Valued-based purchasing (VBP) and the impact of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores on the patient experience will change how environmental services (ES) departments measure success and hospitals qualify for federal reimbursement.
The changes are outlined in an Association for the Healthcare Environment webinar titled "Value-Based Purchasing and HCAHPS: Positioning Your Hospital for Success."
Value-based purchasing represents a "transition from a purely volume-based and fee-for-service model into one that incentivizes and rewards more accountable and higher-quality care," says Jordan VanLare, value-based purchasing lead for quality improvement, office of clinical standards and quality, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Atlanta.
Through VBP, hospitals will be reimbursed based on performance across a set of clinical process measures and patient experience measures defined by the HCAHPS tool, says VanLare.
Elizabeth Knudsen, MPH, manager, improvement services, Press Ganey Associates Inc., says ES staff need to increase awareness of patient expectations for a positive experience.
Nell Wood Buhlman, vice president, clinical compliance products, Press Ganey, says succeeding with VBP requires ES staff to understand what is being measured and how to do it.
