same-day-response-to-phone-call - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Same-day response to phone call to a Primary Care office

Alternate Name

Percentage of people aged 16 and older who reported that when they called their primary care provider’s office with a medical concern during regular office hours, they always or often spoke to their provider or someone in their office on the same day.

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This indicator shows the percentage of people aged 16 or older who reported that when they called their primary care provider’s office with a medical concern during regular office hours during the previous 12 months, they always or often spoke to their provider or someone in their office on the same day, in Ontario. Getting a timely response from a primary care office can lead to better-organized care and greater patient satisfaction. A higher percentage is better.

Indicator Status

Active

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public reporting

Dimension

Timely

Type

Process

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 "always" or "often" to the following survey question:

How often did your [fill fd_type] or someone else in the office speak to you when you called or get back to you on the same day?
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
- ‘depends on what they called for’
- Don’t know
- Refused

Exclusion: Respondents who answered "depends on what they called for.”

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

Weighted number of respondents who reported having a primary care provider and answered "yes" to the following survey question:

Have you called or tried to call your [fill fd_type] office with a medical question or concern during the day on a Monday to Friday in the last 12 months?

- Yes

- No

- Don’t know

- Refused

Exclusions:

Respondents who answered "don’t know" or refused to answer either of the above questions

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- detailed

None

Data Source

Health Care Experience Survey (HCES)

Data provided to HQO by

Ministry of Health

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Age, Education, Immigration, Income, Language, Province, Region, Rurality, Sex

RESULT UPDATES

Indicator Results

Click here to view Health Quality Ontario results for this indicator

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

Only people aged 16 years and older can complete the survey. People living in institutions, non-residential phone numbers, and people with invalid/missing household addresses in the Registered Persons Database (RPDB) are not captured. Respondents who were unable to speak English or French or were not healthy enough (physically or mentally) to complete the interview were not surveyed. The Health Care Experience Survey (HCES) on which the indicator data are based has been affected by reduced surveying in 2023. The 2023 data are unreliable for some indicator results, so those are not reported. Please note that results for 2023 are based on data collected from April to December 2023 rather than during the entire calendar year.

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, geographic region and community weighting is applied. References ‘fill fd_type’ in the questionnaire can mean a family doctor, GP, nurse practitioner, or anyone else the respondent said they get their primary care from. The education stratification analysis is restricted to people aged 25 and older. Urban/rural status is defined using Statistics Canada's Statistical Area Classification. Household income analysis does not consider household composition.

Footnotes

i Health Council of Canada (2011). Toward a Primary Care Strategy for Canada. Canadian foundation of healthcare improvement. ii Hjortdahl P. & Laerum E. Continuity of care in general practice: effect on patient satisfaction. BMJ. 1992 May 16; 304(6837):1287-90. iii Hay C., Pacey M., Bains N., Ardal S. Understanding the unattached population in Ontario. Evidence from Primary Care Access Survey. Healthcare Policy. 2010;6(2), 33.