Answer
- A health indicator is a measure designed to summarize information about a given priority topic in population health or health system performance.
- Health indicators provide comparable and actionable information across different geographic, organizational or administrative boundaries and/or can track progress over time.
Health indicators support provinces/territories, regional health authorities and institutions as they monitor the health of their populations and track how well their local health systems function.
They help in monitoring key performance dimensions described in the Health System Performance Measurement Framework, which provides a common approach for managing health system performance across the country.
Our indicators are reported through a number of tools, including
- Your Health System — An interactive web tool providing health system decision-makers and Canadians with current results for indicators they need. The tool features key indicators for acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities and health regions.
- Health Indicators e-Publication — CIHI has partnered with Statistics Canada to produce more than 80 indicators for the health regions, provinces and territories. This free web-based product provides access to a large inventory of regional health indicators.
- Health Indicators — A series of annual reports with selected indicators that measure health status, non-medical determinants of health, health system performance, and community and health system characteristics. Selected indicators include interpretive analysis. (Discontinued, last report is Health Indicators 2013.)
- Wait Time Indicators for Priority Procedures in Canada — Progress on reducing wait times can be tracked using interactive graphics, which display numerous years of provincial data.
- OECD International Comparisons — Use CIHI’s interactive web tool to see how provinces compare with OECD countries on 19 quality of care indicators.
