time-to-specialist - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Time to specialist appointment

Alternate Name

Percentage of people aged 18 and older who needed to see a specialist in the previous 2 years and reported seeing a specialist within 30 days, 30 to 89 days, or 90 or more days of referral

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

The percentages of people 16 and older who reported in a survey that they saw a specialist in: less than 30 days, 30 to 89 days, or 90 or more days, after referral by a primary care provider.

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public Reports (annual report, bulletins and theme reports)

Dimension

Timely

Type

Process

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Percentage

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by the denominator times 100

Numerator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

Weighted number of survey respondents who reported that they saw a specialist in: less than 30 days, 30 to 89 days, or 90 or more days, after referral by a primary care provider.

Denominator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

Weighted total number of survey respondents who needed to see a specialist in the previous 2 years

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- generalized

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 Summary

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.