Indicator Report Season

In the health performance measurement world, June is when the newest indicator reports are released. To kick off this “indicator report season”, we released our Progress Report 2011 on May 31.  Although the report does not officially report on health indicators, the report synthesizes other reports to provide a Pan-Canadian snapshot of the progress in health care renewal.

Here are some indicators reports out last month you may find interesting:

·        Health Quality Ontario released its annual indicator report, QMonitor, on June 2.  QMonitor reports on over 200 indicators of quality of care and population health at the provincial and Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) level.

·        The Canadian Institute for Health Information released its annual Health Indicators report on June 8.  Health Indicators 2011 reports on over 80 indicators and this year introduced 5 new indicators related to mental health.  Data in this report is reported at the health region, provincial/territorial and national level.

·        The Canadian Stroke Network released The Quality of Stroke Care in Canada 2011 report on June 16.  This report evaluates the quality of stroke care across Canada using data from the Canadian Stroke Registry.

·        The Wait Time Alliance released its report Time Out! Report Card on Wait Times in Canada on June 20.  The report card grades provinces on their progress in reducing wait times in the 5 priority areas set out in 2004, going beyond these 5 priority areas, availability of wait time information on their websites and the impact of alternate levels of care on wait times.

·        Statistics Canada released the latest results from the Canadian Community Health Survey on June 21.  This national, cross sectional survey collects health-related information (as reported by Canadians) at the health region level.  The June 21, 2011 release contains data from the 2010 cycle of the survey.

·        The first phase of results from the 2010 National Physician’s Survey was released on June 27.  This survey polls physicians, medical residents and medical students and reports results on a provincial and pan-Canadian basis. The June 27 release contains information gathered from physicians from all disciplines, and survey results from medical residents and students will be released in fall of 2011.

·        The OECD released OECD Health Data 2011 on June 30.  This report compares Canada’s expenditures on health and other health-related resource use to 34 other participating countries.

If you know of other health indicator reports published recently that are relevant to health care performance and health outcomes in Canada, please share!

Susan Brien, Policy Lead, Health Council of Canada