ICH CAHPS Survey results based on combined data from the 2017 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey and the 2017 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey were posted on Dialysis Facility Compare on the www.medicare.gov website in October 2018. Click here to see the state and national averages for the three ICH CAHPS composite measures and the three global ratings based on the combined data from those two survey periods. The average response rate for each state and the overall response rate are also provided in this document.

The ICH CAHPS Survey results that are currently posted on Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) on the medicare.gov website are based on ICH CAHPS Survey data from the 2017 ICH CAHPS Spring and 2017 Fall Surveys. The results shown are statistically adjusted for both data collection mode and for patient-mix. Information about the adjustments made to the survey results and the coefficients used to adjust the results can be found here. Information presented in this document will allow ICH facilities to approximate the effect of patient-mix adjustment on their ICH CAHPS Survey results that were posted on DFC in October 2018.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team at 1–866–245–8083 or via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org if you have any questions about patient mix adjustment.

A revised XML file layout is now available here on the ICH CAHPS website. Please note that this document reflects the minor text change made to response option 1 of Question 1 in the mail questionnaire and telephone script that will be used starting with the 2018 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey.  The changes made to the XML file layout were minor and do not affect how your XML file will be created. Below are the revisions made to the XML file:

In the Patient Response Record section, updated response option 1 (under the Valid Values column) in Q1 () to display as “At home or at a skilled nursing home where I live”, instead of the previous text, “At home”. The examples of SIDs in the Patient Administrative Data Record section were updated to reflect the upcoming survey year. The header date was changed to October 2018. The version number was updated to Version 7.0. Please note that this XML file layout...

When selecting samples for the ICH CAHPS Survey, the Coordination Team uses patient-level information on the CROWNWeb (CW) database and excludes patients that do not meet survey-eligibility criteria, such as patients who reside in nursing homes (also known as skilled nursing facilities), if this is readily known. However, because CW does not contain an explicit indicator that the patient lives in a nursing home, this determination is usually made by vendors during the ICH CAHPS data collection period.

Some vendors have asked for guidance regarding how to handle the situation where the telephone interviewer reaches a nursing home when trying to call a sample patient. Currently, the interviewer has to determine whether a sample patient:

lives in skilled nursing home and therefore receives dialysis at the nursing home (ineligible for the survey), lives in a rehabilitation section or in an assisted living facility (eligible for the survey), or only works at the nursing home but lives elsewhere (eligible for the survey)....

As Hurricane Florence quickly approaches the East Coast, RTI International, which is headquartered in North Carolina, could experience intermittent power outages once the hurricane makes landfall on Thursday, September 13, 2018 and in the days after.

The ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team will continue to respond to all email and telephone technical assistance inquiries as quickly as possible, but please note that there may be a delay in our response, should we experience a power loss.  We thank you in advance for your patience during this time.

Please contact the Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if you have any questions.

This announcement includes a list of the data quality issues that the Coordination Team (CT) detected in the data from the 2018 Spring Survey and issues we observed during site visits to survey vendors during the 2018 Spring Survey. As you prepare for the 2018 Fall Survey data collection period, please apply appropriate quality control measures so that you can detect and avoid these errors and data problems in all upcoming survey periods.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org or call (866) 245-8083 if you have any questions about any of the information provided below.

Data Quality Reminders

2018 Spring data submitted by vendors looked great! The one general issue found involved the assignment of final disposition codes.

Check Assigned Disposition Codes. Survey vendors should make sure that the correct final disposition codes are assigned to all sample cases. Within 2 to 3 weeks after the data collection...

This is a reminder that all in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that are switching to a different ICH CAHPS Survey vendor to administer the 2018 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey must change their vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS website by 5:00 PM Eastern Time TOMORROW, August 31, 2018.

Please note that ICH facilities must update the online vendor authorization only if the following applies.

Your facility is participating in the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time during the 2018 Fall Survey; OR Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2018 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey; OR Your facility entered the 2018 Spring Survey as the last survey period for which the vendor would administer the survey when you originally submitted the authorization form. If your organization will continue to use the same ICH CAHPS Survey vendor that was used to administer the 2018 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey, you do not need to update the online vendor authorization form.

If any...

This is a reminder to all in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that the deadline for changing your vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS Web site is 5:00 PM Eastern Time on August 31, 2018. Please note you must update the online vendor authorization only if the following applies.

Your facility is participating in the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time during the 2018 Fall Survey; OR Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2018 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey; OR Your facility entered the 2018 Spring Survey as the last survey period for which the vendor would administer the survey when you originally submitted the authorization form. If your organization will continue to use the same ICH CAHPS Survey vendor that was used to administer the 2018 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey, you do not need to update the online vendor authorization form.

If any of the above statements apply to your facility, you must update the online vendor authorization form for the 2018 ICH...

To better assist ICH CAHPS Survey vendors, the Coordination Team has implemented an automated email to vendors when a facility adds an end date for that vendor on their Vendor Authorization Form. The automated email will list the CCN(s) that updated their Vendor Authorization Form with an end date. If vendors are not aware of this end date, which indicates that the facility will no longer be contracting with the vendor for the ICH CAHPS Survey, we encourage you to reach out to your facility contact to ensure that the end date was not added in error.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org or call toll-free at (866) 245-8083 if you have any questions.

This is a reminder that ICH CAHPS Survey vendors must submit all facility-specific supplemental questions that they plan to add to the 2018 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey to the Coordination Team for review and approval. If any of your in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facility clients are planning to add any new facility-specific supplemental questions to the 2018 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey, please send those questions and their proposed placement to the Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org on or before 5:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) on August 10, 2018.

Please note that facility-specific questions that were approved by the Coordination Team for use in previous survey periods do not need to be approved again unless the questionnaire wording or response options have changed.

The Coordination Team will accept facility-specific supplemental questions for review after the August 10, 2018 deadline; however, approval of those questions may not be granted in time for the questions...