C.A.R.E. Insights Blog

Thoughts on the Environment of Care

This blog explores how the environment of care influences the patient's experience and staff well-being, with a focus on how sound, visual atmosphere, pacing, and sensory load shape healing and outcomes in healthcare settings. Topics include patient safety and satisfaction, hospital noise, nurse wellness, HCAHPS, sleep, and much more. Our goal is to share practical insights to help you create environments that heal.

HCAHPS 2.0 Raised the Bar: Why Noise, Rest & Environment Now Drive Your Scores

March 5, 2026

HCAHPS has long measured how patients perceive their hospital experience. Recent updates to the survey expand both the content being measured and how responses are collected

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4 Ways to Practice Environmental Compassion

September 18, 2025

Environmental compassion starts with a simple promise: notice everything that affects a person’s senses, then design it to help them heal. It means being intentional about sound, light, visuals, temperature, touchpoints, and timing

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The Patient Experience: How to Set the Stage for Recovery

April 16, 2021

Let’s talk about the patient experience! The movement is over a decade old, has been described from various perspectives, yet remains a challenge to actually define and operationalize. My goal

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Honoring Dr. Leland R. Kaiser’s Legacy of Healing Health Care

January 18, 2019

If we are fortunate in our pursuit of meaningful work, we will find a mentor, a leader who will help us find our way. A guide who will let us

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What Do Patient Satisfaction Surveys & the HCAHPS Survey Tell Us?

July 29, 2016

There are many similarities between patient experience surveys and the HCAHPS survey. They are both directed to patients, they both have multiple-choice questions, and they are both used to help hospitals improve

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Nothing But Words: Does HCAHPS Truly Measure the Patient Experience?

June 24, 2016

Contrary to what some might think, the patient experience movement wasn’t inspired by just one event or just one speech. It has a history, a kind of genealogy. From Wikipedia: “The word

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The Patient Experience Lives in the Details

February 19, 2016

We are buried in the patient experience metrics, advice, processes, workshops, and standards. And, while the HCAHPS survey has reduced the patient experience to its 31 multiple choice questions, much

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HCAHPS Scores: Mind the Gap Between the Survey and the Answers

August 8, 2014

In thinking about the history of regulatory accountability, HCAHPS has no precedent. As a measurement tool, it has many gaps, including a gap between intention and outcomes and a gap

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All HCAHPS Scores Being Equal: Caregiver as Patient

June 27, 2014

“The only difference between the patient and the caregiver is acuity.” So said hospital CEO Pat Linton so many years ago. And, nothing has changed. Being human puts us at

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HCAHPS Survey Questions Not Really About the Patient

June 13, 2014

Building on my post from last week, healthcare providers ask patients lots of questions to find out if caregivers did their jobs right. And, from my own experience as a

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