Premier Weighs in on Prenatal and Childbirth Care Experience Survey RFI
Premier submitted comments to a request for information (RFI) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on a potential Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) survey to assess patients' prenatal care and childbirth care experiences in ambulatory and inpatient care settings. Currently, no CAHPS instrument is available that is specifically designed to measure prenatal and childbirth care from the patient's perspective in these settings.
In its comments, Premier supports a dedicated survey tool designed to measure prenatal and childbirth care from the patient’s perspective and recommends methodologically sound approaches to capture this data in healthcare settings, including:
Creating survey questions that include communication with providers, access to services and patients' perceptions of bias in receiving care.
Developing different delivery mechanisms for the survey tool, as well as various language versions and survey questions posed in a manner that is suitable for individuals with varying health literacy levels to reflect the diverse birthing population.
Creating a unique survey for maternity care, but if AHRQ does not pursue the creation of a unique survey, Premier urges that a path be explored for integrating questions into the existing inpatient CAHPS surveys that explicitly address prenatal and childbirth care experiences.
