What is the Communication Climate Assessment Toolkit?
Effective communication is necessary for
every aspect of quality care and is an increasing focus of accreditation and
other regulations. To assist organizations in creating an environment in which
communication is effective for all patients, the American Medical Association
developed the Communication Climate Assessment Toolkit (C-CAT),
which
is now administered exclusively through the University of Colorado, Center for
Bioethics and Humanities.
National Quality Forum
The
assessment metrics in the C-CAT have been validated in hospitals and clinics
nationwide and seven of the 9 reported C-CAT measures have been endorsed by the
National Quality Forum.
Benefits: Why use C-CAT?
•
Validated
in diverse health care organizations nationally (C-CAT scores are benchmarked against other hospitals nationwide)
• Provides
a 360º assessment using coordinated patient, staff and leadership surveys, and
an organizational workbook to collect information on
policies and practices
• Delivers
tangible, reliable metrics that demonstrate whether an organization’s policies,
practices and culture promote effective, patient-centered
communication
• Compliments
CAHPS assessments, documents compliance with Title VI (CLAS) standards and is
invaluable in meeting The Joint Commission’s
patient centered communication standards
• Produces
valuable information for needs assessments and for meeting other local and
national standards
How it Works:
The C-CAT surveys are available for viewing
online. You may download and use the surveys for research purposes at no
cost. If you would like to use the C-CAT for a formal, benchmarked
organization assessment, send an email to ccat@ucdenver.edu and we will connect you with a
trained C-CAT consultant. Qualified C-CAT consultants will help you use the surveys for
your organizational assessment, provide benchmarking data and offer tailored
guidance for improvement.
*Administration of the C-CAT
has transitioned from the American Medical Association to the Center
for Bioethics and Humanities. The Center for Bioethics is now the
exclusive point of contact for inquiries, consultants and training surrounding
C-CAT.
What they're saying...
“ This toolkit revealed the ‘disconnects’
in our systems. Now we have a clearer road map for improving … we are better
able to focus our resources in areas that will make the greatest difference.”
— Mary Horan,
director, Family Centered Care, Windham Hospital, Willamantic, Conn.
“ [The] analysis provides excellent
baseline data [and] the recommendations provide tangible objectives and areas
that can be addressed and integrated within the organization’s strategic and
future marketing plan … this data and analysis is ‘gold’ to organizations [and]
is also very helpful when seeking funding opportunities, which is always a
plus.”
— Marisol de la Vega Cardoso,
director, Quality Improvement, Family HealthCare Network, Visalia, Calif.
“ The … specific and detailed reports for
each domain, along with recommendations of things we could consider for
improvement … were very helpful. Overall we saw an improvement in our scores
between the two years…. With this toolkit we were able to take a valid
360-degree assessment on our communication performance utilizing the 9 domains.
The assessment results can be useful for tracking an organization’s
performance, benchmarking and to inform tailored quality improvement
interventions.”
— Mary
Mixon, assistant administrator, University
Hospital and Health System, Jackson, Miss.
For information, contact the C-CAT Project Coordinators:
Songyuan Gu, MS, or Julie Ressalam MPH, CHES, at (303) 724-6997
or email: ccat@ucdenver.edu
Follow
the C-CAT Team on Twitter @CCATColorado
and LinkedIn