Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems: Do Patient Demographics Affect Outcomes in Total Knee Arthroplasty?

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a nationally standardized tool to assess patient experience between hospitals. The HCAHPS survey can affect hospital reimbursement. This study aims to determine if HCAHPS scores vary by a number of demographic variables in patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Patients who underwent primary TKA and returned a completed HCAHPS survey were included in this study. HCAHPS surveys were collected from our institution’s Center for Quality and Patient Safety department, which was cross-referenced with our hospital’s electronic data warehouse. Patient demographics, surgical factors, and quality outcomes were queried, and multivariable linear regression was performed.

In total, 1028 HCAHPS questionnaires after primary TKA were evaluated. The average age of patients was 65.9 ± 9.0 years and 67.9% (698 patients) were female. Average body mass index was 32.5 ± 6.9 kg/m ². Sixty-nine percent of the patients (1287 patients) were discharged home versus 10.3% (106 patients) to another facility. Mean length of stay was 2.9 ± 1.4 days. Age was correlated with a 0.3% decrease in top-box response rate ( P < .01) for each 1-year increase in age. Compared to Caucasian race, African American race was correlated with a 5.6% increased rate for top-box response ( P < .01), while Asian race ( P = .42) and unknown race ( P = 1.00) demonstrated no significant difference. Marital status demonstrated that divorced/separated status resulted in a significant 5.4% decrease in top-box response rates ( P < .05). Similarly, single ( P = .12) and widowed ( P = .09) statuses also demonstrated a trend toward lower top-box response rates when compared to married or partnered patients. For each day increase in length of stay, HCAHPS top-box response rates decrease by 1.6% ( P < .01). Gender, body mass index, smoking status, insurance type, and discharge disposition were not found to be significantly correlated with HCHAPS top-box response rate ( P > .05).

HCAHPS scores in patients undergoing primary TKA are influenced not just by hospital and surgeon factors such as length of stay but by demographic variables such as age, race, and marital status. As surgeons become more involved with the burden of improving patient experience, they should be aware that static demographic variables can have a significant effect on HCAHPS scores.