Satisfaction-with-wait-to-primary-care - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Satisfaction with time to appointment when sick

Alternate Name

Percentages of people aged 16 and older who said that the amount of time they waited to an appointment with their health care provider when sick was either “about right,” “somewhat long,” or “much too long.”

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

Percentages of people aged 16 and older who said that the length of time they waited to an appointment with their health care provider when sick was either “about right,” “somewhat long,” or “much too long.”

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 denominator times 100

Numerator including inclusion/exclusion

Weighted number of survey respondents who reported that the length of time they waited to an appointment with their health care provider when they were sick was either “about right,” “somewhat long,” or “much too long.”

Survey question:

Would you say the length of time it took between making the appointment and the actual visit was about right, somewhat too long, or much too long?

about right
somewhat too long
much too long
other (e.g., if they felt it was too short)
don’t know
refused

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

Weighted number of survey respondents stated that they saw their primary care provider or someone else in the office when they were sick or were concerned that had a health problem.

Did you actually see your provider or someone else in their office?

yes saw own doctor
yes saw someone else in office
saw both provider and someone else (and others)
no
don't know
refused

Exclusion:

Respondents who answered "don't know" or "refused" to the above survey 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, Immigration, Income, Language, 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. Respondents that were away; had non-residential numbers; out-of-service numbers were not included as well.

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. After the regional and community weighting is applied. In the Measuring Up report the international and provincial comparisons are reported as well. The education stratification analysis is done among those aged 25 and older. Urban/rural status is defined using Statistics Canada's Statistical Area Classification.

Footnotes

1. Wong ST, Watson DE, Young E, Regan S. What do people think is important about primary healthcare? Healthcare Policy 2008;3:89-104. 2. College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). A Vision for Canada: Family Practice - The Patient’s Medical Home. Mississauga, ON: College of Family Physicians of Canada. Available from: http://www.cfpc.ca/A_Vision_for_Canada/. Accessed 09 May 2012. 3. Sabrina T. Wong, Diane E. Watson, Ella Young and Sandra Regan. What Do People Think Is Important about Primary Healthcare?