The Patient Experience in the HAS Quality of Care Certification Criteria

What is Quality of Care certification? 

Healthcare quality certification, managed by the French National Authority for Healthcare (HAS), is an independent assessment process designed to evaluate the quality and safety of care provided by healthcare establishments (private and public) in France.

It is carried out every 4 years by expert visitors, professionals mandated by the HAS, based on national standards established in consultation with professionals and patients.
Certification assesses a facility's performance in terms of quality of care, rather than its ability to comply with processes. To this end, it takes patients' experience into account, and teams are encouraged to organize themselves and use the methods they deem appropriate to achieve the desired results.

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A facility's certification is also taken into account in theFinancial Incentive for Quality Improvement (IFAQ), one of the ways in which healthcare facilities are financed, and whose budget has grown steadily since its creation in 2017 (700 million euros in 2023).

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What are the certification requirements in terms of listening to patients? 

Among the HAS evaluation criteria, three focus partly or entirely on listening to patients:

• The first (Criterion 1.1-17) assesses patients' ability to express their satisfaction via satisfaction questionnaires and/or e-Satis questionnaires , and their level of information about the systems in place.
• A second (3.2-01) evaluates the facility's support and promotion of listening systems such as e-Satis. The introduction of additional satisfaction questionnaires, particularly in care units or technical areas, is also taken into account. 
• A final point (3.2-06) concerns the facility's ability to combat abuse. This involves setting up ways for teams to listen topatients' experiences, in order to spot acts of abuse, particularly at times when they are vulnerable.

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This last criterion is ranked as imperative by the HAS.

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What are the expectations of certification in terms of taking into account thePatient Experience ?

Once the patient opinions have been collected, three criteria are used to assess how this information is taken into account to improve care and the patient pathway: 

• The first (Criterion 2.4-02) assesses teams on their ability to improve the quality of care, based on feedback from patient satisfaction and experience.
• The second (3.3-01) assesses whether the facility is implementing a policy of continuous improvement in the quality and safety of care. The objectives of this policy must be developed through a holistic analysis of all available data and knowledge, including patient satisfaction and experience.
• The final criterion (3.7-03) assesses the way in which the facility uses HQI (including e-Satis) to objectivize its level of care quality. These indicators must be monitored regularly and used to draw up a program of actions to improve the quality of care.

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These last two criteria are also classified as imperative by the HAS.

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Conclusion

Improving the quality of care through the collection and analysis of patient experience is a subject not to be neglected in the HAS certification process.
The analysis of verbatims from e-Satis and satisfaction questionnaires can provide food for thought for teams, but is often overlooked as a time-consuming task. Yet this is where the richest information lies. At Better World, we support you in this process by helping you collect patient opinions and transforming them into actionable, quantitative analysis leads.

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Would you like to learn more about Patient Experience? Get in touch with us!

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Better World is the French leader in listening to verbatim Patientswith 700+ healthcare and medical-social establishments covered.