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Gauging the health of our health care system
CMAJ 2001;164(3):324 [PDF]

See response from: N.P. Roos
In a CMAJ commentary,1 Noralou Roos says, "although only 20% of Canadians report having confidence in the health care system, more than 50% say that the medical care they and their family personally received in the last year was very good or excellent," quoting a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.2

Is it not odd that as many as 20% of Canadians have confidence in the health care system when they feel that the chances that their medical care will be very good or excellent are barely above 50%? Would this satisfation rate be acceptable in other industries? How many of us would have confidence in an auto repair shop that produced satisfaction rates barely above 50%? Does the health care industry have appropriate aspirations?

David Zitner
Director of Medical Informatics
Faculty of Medicine
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS

References
  1. Roos, NP. The disconnect between the data and the headlines [commentary]. CMAJ 2000;163(4):411-2.
  2. Health care in Canada: a first annual report. Ottawa, Canadian Institute for Health Information; 2000. p. 12.

 

 

Copyright 2001 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors