Accessing-after-hours-primary-care - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Accessing after-hours primary care

Alternate Name

Percentage of people aged 16 and older who reported that getting access to care on an evening or weekend, without going to the emergency department, was very difficult or somewhat difficult

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

Percentage of people in Ontario aged 16 and older who reported that last time when they needed medical care, getting access to care without going to the emergency department, in the evening, on a weekend, or on a public holiday was very or somewhat difficult. A lower percentage is better.

Indicator Status

Active

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public reporting

Dimension

Timely

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Percentage

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by the denominator times 100

Numerator including inclusion/exclusion

Weighted number of respondents who answered "very difficult" or "somewhat difficult" to the following question:

The last time when you needed medical care in the evening, on a weekend, or on a public holiday, how easy or difficult was it to get care without going to the emergency department?

- Very easy

- Somewhat easy

- Somewhat difficult

- Very difficult

- Never tried to do this/never needed care

- Don’t know

- Refused

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

Weighted total number of survey respondents who reported having a primary care provider

Exclusion:

Those who selected "never tried to do this/never needed care", "Don't know" or "refused" response options in the above/numerator question.

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- detailed

None

Data Source

Health Care Experience Survey (HCES)

Data provided to HQO by

Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Age, Education, Income, International comparison, Province, Region, Rurality, Sex

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

Only people aged 16 years and older can complete the survey People living in institutions, in households without telephones, and those with invalid/missing household addresses in the Registered Persons Database (RPDB) are excluded. Respondents who were unable to speak English or French or were not healthy enough (physically or mentally) to complete the interview were not surveyed. Inability to distinguish if people consider Telehealth to be access to primary care after hours

Comments Detailed

The results are weighted to account for the design characteristics of the survey and post-stratified by age and sex to reflect the Ontario population. In addition, the LHIN and community weighting is applied. The data source for international and provincial comparisons is Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey 2016 . Survey question in CMWF IHP: How easy or difficult is it to get medical care in the evenings, on weekends, or holidays without going to the hospital emergency department/Accident and Emergency (A and E) Department/emergency room? The survey population is adults aged 18 and older. The education stratification analysis is done among those aged 25 and older. Urban/rural status is defined using Statistics Canada's Statistical Area Classification. Household income analysis does not consider the household composition.