Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS)

Overview: The HCAHPS Survey is a national, standardized, publicly-reported survey of patients' perspectives of hospital care.  The 32-item instrument and data collection methodology allow valid comparisons to be made across hospitals. In 2025, CMS made several important changes to survey administration and content. The original survey was nationally implemented in 2006, and public reporting of hospital scores began in 2008. Since 2012, HCAHPS scores have also played a role in hospital payment through the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program.  

About the survey: The HCAHPS Survey captures the patient’s experience of communication with doctors and nurses, restfulness of hospital environment, care coordination, responsiveness of hospital staff, communication about medicines, discharge information, cleanliness of the hospital, information about symptoms, overall rating, and recommendation of the hospital.  The survey is administered between 2 and 42 days after discharge to a random sample of adult patients.  There are six approved modes of administration: Mail, Telephone, Mail with Telephone follow-up, Web with Mail follow-up, Web with Telephone follow-up, and Web with Mail and Telephone follow-up.  The survey is also available in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Portuguese, German, Tagalog, and Arabic translations.  Over 4,400 hospitals participate in HCAHPS and nearly two million patients complete the survey each year.  

How the data are used: Publicly reported HCAHPS results are based on four consecutive quarters of patient surveys. CMS publishes updated HCAHPS results of participating hospitals quarterly on the Compare Tool on Medicare.gov and in the Data Catalog on Data.CMS.gov. For information about the Hospital VBP program, please visit the CMS HVBP website. Summaries and analyses of HCAHPS scores can be found on the official HCAHPS website, which also provides news and alerts, training materials, podcasts, survey instruments, and implementation protocols.  

For more information, please visit the HCAHPS website. You can also access the HCAHPS Quality Assurance Guidelines.  You may also contact CMS at HOSPITALCAHPS@cms.hhs.gov or the HCAHPS project team at hcahps@hsag.com.