title: Evaluating the psychometric properties of the CAHPS Patient-centered Medical Home survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a field test of the CAHPS PCMH survey with 2740 adults. We collected information by mail (n = 1746), telephone (n = 672), and from the Web (n = 322) from 6 sites of care affiliated with a West Coast staff model health maintenance organization.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An overall response rate of 37% was obtained. Internal consistency reliability estimates for 7 multi-item scales were as follows: access to care, 5 items, α = 0.79; communication with providers, 6 items, α = 0.93; office staff courtesy and respect, 2 items, α = 0.80; shared decision making about medicines, 3 items, α = 0.67; self-management support, 2 items, α = 0.61; attention to mental health issues, 3 items, α = 0.80; and care coordination, 4 items, α = 0.58. The number of responses needed to get reliable information at the site of care level for the composites was generally acceptable (<300 for 0.70 reliability-level) except for self-management support and shared decision making about medicines. Item-scale correlations provided support for distinct composites except for access to care and shared decision making about medicines, which overlapped with the communication with providers scale. Shared decision making and self-management support were significantly, uniquely associated with the global rating of the provider (dependent variable), along with access and communication in a multiple regression model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides further support for the reliability and validity of the CAHPS PCMH survey, but refinement of the self-management support and shared decision-making scales is needed. The survey can be used to provide information about the performance of different health plans on multiple domains of health care, but future efforts to improve some of the survey items is needed.
authors.affiliation: UCLA Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Los Angeles, California. Electronic address: drhays@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Ron D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hays
authors.affiliation: Regulatory Relations and Performance Assessment, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena, California.
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Berman
authors.affiliation: Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena, California.
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kanter
authors.affiliation: Regulatory Relations and Performance Assessment, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena, California.
authors.forename: Mildred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hugh
authors.affiliation: Market Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, Oregon.
authors.forename: Rachel R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Oglesby
authors.affiliation: Regulatory Relations and Performance Assessment, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena, California.
authors.forename: Chong Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: RAND, Santa Monica, California.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: RAND, Santa Monica, California.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D003151:Community Health Centers; D003657:Decision Making; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: CAHPS PCMH survey; evaluations of health care; health plan survey; patient experience measure; patient-centered care