HCAHPS Training for Healthcare Workers

The Iroquois Healthcare Association has been awarded funding under the NYS Department of Health's Workforce Retraining Initiative (HWRI) to provide training for IHA member facilities, and their employees in HCAHPS.  This training initiative offers educational opportunities for staff to help maximize patient satisfaction and quality performance in response to Federal and State pay-for-performance initiatives.

Iroquois Project Overview
Iroquois is partnering with HealthStream to provide online training courseware to assist member hospitals with training hospital staff whose interactions with patients are measured on the HCAHPS survey.  The HWRI funding can be used to train hospital staff in these select job titles:

• All clinical "technician" job titles are eligible (e.g., Pharmacy Technicians, Imaging Technicians)
• Support job titles eligible - Support Associates, Food Service, Housekeeping, Transport Aide.

To provide a complete comprehensive training initiative for all staff, Iroquois will be establishing a volume-based tiered pricing arrangement with Healthstream for training of additional job titles beyond what the HWRI funding can cover.

The Iroquois HCAHPS Training Project will run through June 30, 2013.  Facility enrollment in the project will commence in April 2012.  Hospital staff will be able to begin taking classes in July 2012.  Staff enrolled in the project will be have six months to complete their assigned courses.

About Healthstream HCAHPS Training Courses
The Healthstream HCAHPS Preparation and Improvement Library courseware has been developed to provide a comprehensive understanding for improvement in care for reporting on this regulation. The online courses prepare health care staff by educating them on the actual survey questions and focusing them on simple things that improve patients’ perceptions of their care.  The curriculum is designed for all hospital staff whose interactions with patients are measured on the HCAHPS survey.  Learners interact online with typical patient scenarios to identify their behaviors that both positively and negatively impact patient care. By increasing staff awareness of the HCAHPS survey and making simple, high-impact changes, hospitals will be positioned for improvements in patients’ perceptions of their care.

More Information on the Healthstream HCAHPS Preparation and Improvement Courseware:

Please contact Greg DeWitt at (518) 348-7442 gdewitt@iroquois.org if you have any questions.