Avatar Solutions Blog How Aspen Valley Hospital Is "Getting On Board the ED CAHPS Train"

Since CMS released draft instruments last year, interest in the Emergency Department Patient Experience of Care (ED PEC) Survey has been growing steadily. Now, with a national mode experiment underway, many organizations are voicing questions regarding when implementation of a mandatory ED CAHPS program could occur and what they can do to begin preparing.Avatar currently estimates that CMS will likely release final ED PEC instruments in early 2017; to date, a timeline for possible implementation of ED CAHPS has not been confirmed. Still, healthcare leaders are well-advised to begin their preparations now, so they can establish effective processes and improve performance before a pay-for-reporting or pay-for-performance scenario arises.Among organizations whose preparations are already underway, perhaps few can claim to be as well-positioned as Aspen Valley Hospital, a critical access hospital located in the famed Colorado resort town with which it shares a name. Having partnered with Avatar since the early 2000s, Aspen Valley has spent years monitoring and working to improve the patient experience in its emergency department and throughout the organization.In a client-exclusive webinar last month, Aspen Valley's Interim Chief Clinical Officer, Lori Maloy, shared key details on how the hospital is preparing for ED CAHPS. To help leaders as they begin their own preparations, this article shares an overview of highlights and best practices from the webinar.