test-results-not-available - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Test results not available

Alternate Name

Percentage of people aged 16 and older who reported that test results were not available at the time of a scheduled appointment with their provider within the past 12 months

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

The percentage of people 16 and older who reported in a survey that test results were not available at the time of a scheduled appointment with their primary care provider with-in the previous 12 months, among those who had a regular primary care provider and who had a test within the previous 12 months

Indicator Status

Active

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public Reports (annual report, bulletins and theme reports)

Dimension

Effective

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Percentage

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by the denominator times 100

Numerator including inclusion/exclusion

Number of people who answered "yes" to the question "In the last 12 months, when receiving care for a medical problem, was there ever a time when test results were not available at the time of a scheduled appointment with your provider?"
Response options:
1 yes
5 no
7 did not receive care for medical problem/no tests in last 12 months/not applicable
8 don’t know
9 refused

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

Weighted total number of survey respondents who had a regular primary care provider and who had a test within the previous 12 months.

Exclusion:
Those who selected "7 did not receive care for medical problem/no tests in last 12 months/not applicable" "8 don’t know" "9 refused" to the 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)

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

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. 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.