Healthcare Areas
Also in this section
- Primary Healthcare
- Clinical care
- Delivery of care
- Patient experience
- Patients’ experience with family doctors’ listening
- Patients’ rating of family doctor’s explanations
- Patients’ experience with appointment length
- Patients’ experience with family doctor’s respect
- Patients’ experiences with their doctor involving them in care decisions
- Patient experience with care coordination
- Patient experience with family doctor availability
- Patients’ overall experience with their family doctor
- Emergency Department
- Wait times
- EMS response time for life-threatening events
- Time spent by EMS at hospital
- Patient time to see an emergency doctor
- Patient emergency department total length of stay (LOS)
- Length of time emergency department patients wait for a hospital bed after a decision to admit
- Time to get X-ray completed
- Emergency department volumes
- Delivery of care
- Hospital patients who require an alternate level of care
- Length of patient hospital stay compared to Canadian average length of hospital stay
- Patients who left without being seen (LWBS) by an emergency department doctor
- Patients waiting in the emergency department for a hospital bed
- Hospital occupancy
- Patient experience
- Patient experience with staff introductions
- Patient experience with communication about follow-up care
- Patient experience with help for pain
- Communication with patients about possible side effects of medicines
- Patient reason for emergency department visit
- Overall patient experience with emergency department communication
- Overall rating of care
- Highlight Meaningful Changes
- Wait times
- Hospital Care
- Delivery of care
- Patient experience
- Overall rating of care
- Patient experience with talking with staff about help needed at home
- Patient experience with staff helping with pain
- Patient experience with information about their condition and treatment
- Patient experience with involvement in care decisions
- Patient experience with communication with nurses and doctors
- Client experience
- Client experience with courtesy and respect
- Client experience with listening
- Client experience with reaching their case manager
- Client experience with case manager (help with community services)
- Client experience with care plan involvement
- Client experience with care plan meeting needs
- Client experience with independence (home set-up)
- Client experience with independence (staff encouragement)
- Client experience with personal care staff capability
- Client experience with communication about a visit cancellation
- Client experience with pain management
- Client experience with reviewing medications
- Client experience with help to stay at home
- Client experience with family doctor being informed
- Client overall care experience
- Delivery of Care
- Resident Experience
- Resident experience of staff treating them with respect
- Resident experience with decision-making
- Resident experience with food
- Resident experience with getting their healthcare needs met
- Resident experiences with staff dependability
- Resident experiences with sharing concerns
- Resident experiences with feeling safe
- Resident experience with personal connections with staff
- Resident experiences with independence
- Resident experiences with rules
- Resident experiences with activities
- Resident overall experience
- Family experience
- Family experience with courtesy and respect
- Family experience with decision-making
- Family experience with food
- Family experience with healthcare services and treatments
- Family experience with resident cared for by the same staff
- Presence of a resident and family council
- Family experience with sharing concerns
- Family experience with staffing
- Family overall rating of care
- Clinical care
- Symptoms of delirium
- Mood worsened from symptoms of depression
- Behavioural symptoms improved
- Inappropriate use of antipsychotics
- Worsening pain
- New pressure ulcers
- Physical restraint use
- Unexplained weight loss
- Cognitive performance
- Frailty and risk of health decline
- Potential depression
- Activities of daily living
- Delivery of care
- Family experience
- Family experience with courtesy and respect
- Family experience with decision-making
- Family experience with food
- Family experience with healthcare services and treatments
- Family experience with resident cared for by the same staff
- Family experience with presence of a resident and family council
- Family experience with sharing concerns
- Family experience with staffing
- Family experience with staff responsiveness
- Family overall rating of care
Primary Healthcare
Family doctor visit after a hospital stay for selected chronic conditions
Percentage of patients seen by a family doctor within 7 or 30 days of discharge after a hospital stay related to one of the following chronic conditions: high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, heart failure, ischaemic heart disease (e.g., angina, heart attack), or chronic renal failure. (see data definition)
*Data courtesy of Alberta Health Services and Alberta Health
What do you see?
- What is the difference between visit rates at 7 and 30 days after discharge?
- Are there differences in the follow-up rates between the mainly urban zones or Primary Care Networks (PCNs) (Calgary and Edmonton) compared to the more rural zones or PCNs (North, Central, South)? What might account for these differences?
- Are follow-up rates changing over time? What might account for this?
- Are there certain conditions which seem to receive more follow-up care by a family doctor than others? How does this vary across zones/PCNs?
Why is it meaningful?
- Is there a relationship between this data and another healthcare area?
- Do you see successes worth highlighting or opportunities for improvement?
Understanding family doctor visit after a hospital stay for selected chronic conditions
Family doctors have a significant role in caring for patients with chronic conditions. Timely follow-up after a hospital stay enables the family doctor to review what happened while the patient was in hospital and make sure any required follow-up or tests are completed. It may help reduce the risk of the patient returning to hospital for the same problem or developing further problems or complications.
This measure is related to information transfer ― family doctors need to know that their patients have been in hospital. Patients and family doctors can both impact this measure. Patients are often encouraged to contact their family doctor’s office to book an appointment after they are discharged from hospital. Family doctors who know their patients have been in hospital may call the patient to come in for follow-up. Follow-up may be early (within 7 days) or later (within 30 days) depending on the situation and patients’ needs.
Considerations when reviewing the results
- Includes only patients who did not get readmitted within the time period (7 or 30 days).
- Includes only visits where a family doctor is seen. It does not include visits with a team member in the doctor’s office (e.g., nurse or pharmacist) or by a program or service provided by a primary care network (PCN).
- May include family doctor visits for problems not related to the patient’s chronic condition or hospital stay.
- Consider whether early (7 days) or later (within 30 days) follow-up is most appropriate for your patients with these chronic conditions.
Alberta Quality Matrix for Health
The Health Quality Council of Alberta uses the Alberta Quality Matrix for Health as a way of organizing information and thinking around the complexity of the healthcare system. This measure can be used as input to assess primary healthcare’s performance in these dimensions of quality: Accessibility, Effectiveness, and Safety.