Compassion practices and HCAHPS: does rewarding and supporting workplace compassion influence patient perceptions?

Objective: To examine the benefits of compassion practices on two indicators of patient perceptions of care quality-the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and systems (HCAHPS) overall hospital rating and likelihood of recommending.

Study setting: Two hundred sixty-nine nonfederal acute care U.S. hospitals.

Study design: Cross-sectional study.

Data collection: Surveys collected from top-level hospital executives. Publicly reported HCAHPS data from October 2012 release.

Principal findings: Compassion practices, a measure of the extent to which a hospital rewards compassionate acts and compassionately supports its employees (e.g., compassionate employee awards, pastoral care for employees), is significantly and positively associated with hospital ratings and likelihood of recommending.

Conclusions: Our findings illustrate the benefits for patients of specific and actionable organizational practices that provide and reinforce compassion.