Long-running survey on health-care system satisfaction scrapped
The Health Quality Council of Alberta has scrapped a long-running survey on patient satisfaction with the health system, as the organization tries to fine-tune its approach for the future.
Since 2003, the HQCA — a government agency mandated to monitor health services and patient safety — has conducted a survey every two years to rate the quality of care received.
But the provincial Health Ministry’s 2017-20 business plan, released with last month’s budget, says the 2016 survey — which saw 79 per cent of patients rate the system as excellent or good, up from 77 per cent two years earlier — was the last and it has been discontinued.
Health Quality Council CEO Andrew Neuner said the survey was “valid” but that it lacked significant relevance for most Albertans.
“As a member of the public, it would be pretty tough for you to look at that and make sense of, ‘what does that mean for me?’ ” he said in a recent interview, noting for example that it provides no details about conditions at a local level.
The 2016 survey on satisfaction and experience with health-care services saw the province speak to more than 1,300 people in February and March of that year about their experience over the previous 12 months.
The survey has not been released publicly but the information has been given to the government. A copy of the results provided by the HQCA to Postmedia showed 69 per cent satisfaction with the health system, compared with 66 per cent in 2014.
Neuner said the council is instead shifting focus to new measures that are of greater utility, such as its recently-unveiled survey of services in 16 provincial emergency rooms, which is updated every 90 days.
“It’s going to start very, very different conversations. If there’s a facility that experiences traditionally high wait times to see a physician or long turnarounds to get X-rays or things like that, it’s going to be real transparent,” he said.
The Health Quality Council has been responsible for a number of high-profile reports since it was founded more than a decade ago, including reviews of queue-jumping and ground ambulance service requested by the former Progressive Conservative government.
The NDP government that took office in 2015 has requested one major review — of laboratory services — by the council.
Neuner said the HQCA has a good relationship with the current government but it has seen fewer requests for its services coming from the Notley administration or Alberta Health Services.
“We certainly could do more,” he said.
John Church, health-care economist at the University of Alberta, said the need for the Health Quality Council is as high as ever.
While the council has the ability to initiate investigations, he said he’d like to see it gain more independence from the provincial government.
“There needs to be transparency and accountability in the system, and the Health Quality Council can be a key part of that,” Church said.
“Strengthening the role of the Health Quality Council would enable them to be more proactive.”
Church said the health satisfaction survey’s primary use has been as a way for governments to get a “very broad sense of what the public mood is on the health-care system at a given time.
“In a lot of respects, it’s more of a political document than a technical document.”