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- Primary Healthcare
- Clinical care
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- Consistent use of the same primary care provider (provider continuity)
- Consistent use of the same primary care clinic (clinic continuity)
- Primary care provider use of various visit types
- Emergency department visits for minor conditions
- Primary care provider visit after a hospital stay for selected chronic conditions
- Patient experience
- Patients’ experience with primary care providers’ listening
- Patients’ rating of primary care provider’s explanations
- Patients’ experience with appointment length
- Patients’ experience with primary care provider’s respect
- Patients’ experiences with their primary care provider involving them in care decisions
- Patient experience with care coordination
- Patient experience with primary care provider availability
- Patients’ overall experience with their primary care provider
- Emergency Department
- Wait times
- EMS response time for life-threatening events
- Time spent by EMS at hospital
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- 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
- Number of different professional care staff
- Professional care staff gave choice in how care is provided
- Professional care staff explanation easy to understand
- Professional care staff listened carefully
- Professional care concerns handled satisfactorily
- Number of different personal care staff
- Personal care staff informed of arrival time
- Personal care staff listened carefully
- Personal care staff explanation easy to understand
- Personal care concerns handled satisfactorily
- Personal care staff were supportive
- Personal care staff had a warm presence
- Overall rating of professional care
- Overall rating of personal care
- Client overall care experience
- Home care helps clients stay at home
- 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 of resident and family council
- Family experience with sharing concerns
- Family experience with staffing
- Family experience with staff responsiveness
- Family overall rating of care
- Resident experience
- Resident overall experience
- Resident experiences with sharing concerns
- Resident experiences with rules
- Resident experiences with independence
- Resident experiences with feeling safe
- Resident experiences with activities
- Resident experience with getting their healthcare needs met
- Resident experience with food
- Resident experience with decision-making
- Delivery of care
- Resident experience
- Resident experience with decision-making
- Resident experience with food
- Resident experience with getting their healthcare needs met
- Resident experiences with sharing concerns
- Resident experiences with feeling safe
- 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
Hospital Care
Unplanned readmission to hospital within seven or 30 days
Percentage of patients who were sent home from hospital, and then readmitted within seven or 30 days. (see data definition)
- Data courtesy of Alberta Health Services. Please note, this measure is updated at least one month after other measures in the Hospital Care section of this site to account for the 30-day readmission window. Also, delivery of care measures, like this one, exclude the remaining smaller hospitals because data is inconsistent at these hospitals.
What do you see?
- What do the trends in seven- and 30-day hospital readmissions indicate about the quality of care provided (keeping in mind some readmissions are unavoidable)?
- Would the higher readmission rates warrant further investigation into discharge planning and continuity of services after discharge?
Why is it meaningful?
- Whether you’re a patient, provider, or health system administrator, thinking about this measure can start conversations and lead to solutions for improved quality of healthcare.
- Do you see successes worth highlighting or opportunities for improvement?
Understanding "unplanned readmissions to hospital within seven or 30 days"
Unplanned readmissions to a hospital following an inpatient stay can be a measure of quality of care and care coordination. While not all readmissions may be avoidable, some reasons for readmission that may be manageable include:
- the quality of intervention and care during hospitalization
- coordination with community care
- medication appropriateness upon discharge
- effectiveness of post-discharge therapies
- availability of appropriate diagnostic or therapeutic technologies during the initial hospital stay
- the patient’s ability to manage their ongoing health needs once home
Interventions during and after hospitalization can be effective at reducing readmission rates, while improving patient experience and hospitalization cost management.
Considerations when reviewing the results
- Only unplanned readmissions are captured via this measure. Hospital admissions planned in advance (e.g. scheduled surgeries) are not included.
- Given that readmissions due to all causes are captured, it is possible that patients may be readmitted to hospital for a completely different health concern/episode of care. For example, a patient hospitalized due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may return home and soon after, fall and break their hip, requiring another admission to hospital.