Clay LinkousCo-founder, Linkous Solutions · International Speaker, Executive Coach, and Facilitator / Champion of Physicians, Leadership, the Human Experience, SDOH, Vulnerable Populations, & Neurodiversity.

WHAT - Master HCAHPS Doctor Communication: Boost Patient Perception #shorts

3 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:24

In this instructional short, the speaker outlines the three HCAHPS doctor‑communication survey questions that patients answer about their hospital stay: (1) how often doctors treated them with courtesy and respect, (2) how often doctors listened carefully, and (3) how often doctors explained things in an understandable way. He highlights that each question shares the identical phrasing “during this hospital stay, how often did doctors ___?” which signals that the survey measures frequency and consistency rather than a single occurrence. The speaker stresses that clinicians must deliver courteous, attentive, and clear communication consistently in every patient encounter—not just once—to improve patient perception scores.

Chapters

When we talk about HCAHPS doctor communication, what I want you to appreciate is that inside of that domain of the HCAHPS survey, there are actually 3 questions that are asked of a patient that help us determine the patient's perception of doctor communication. So the first question that they are asked is, during this hospital stay, how often did doctors treat you with courtesy and respect? The second question they get asked is, during this hospital stay, how often did doctors listen carefully to you? And the third question is, during this hospital stay, how often did doctors explain things to you in a way you could understand? Now, one of the things I want you to appreciate about those three questions is there was a phrase in all three of them that was exactly the same. And that phrase was, during this hospital stay, how often did doctors blank? So, what it's actually asking is, it's a frequency analysis. It's a consistency analysis. It's basically asking the patient not whether or not something happened at all. It's asking them how often or how consistently or how frequently it happened. So, the, the challenge for us as physicians and clinicians is not to make sure that we just do it once, but to do it every time, every patient, every encounter. And that's how we win when it comes to this patient perception of care.