An independent provincial agency set up to assess the quality of health care is adopting a new survey to monitor patients' satisfaction when they visit the doctor's office.

Health Quality Ontario announced the new patient-experience survey pilot project at a meeting of the Association of Ontario Health Centres on Wednesday.

The HQO agency is leading the project to develop the Primary Care Patient Experience Survey, which could be used by health organizations to learn how patients view the quality of care they get.

The survey measures very specific aspects of a patient's most recent visit ─ their experience setting up the appointment or contacting the clinic, arrival to the office or clinic, consultations with the staff and clinicians, and their experience departing from the clinic. The survey also measures the patient's overall and ongoing experience with the care they receive.

The pilot survey will run through the spring and summer and when it's finished, HQO plans to make a modified version of the results available to doctors, nurses and all primary care practices. "There is no standardized practice-based tool that allows primary-care organizations to measure and monitor the experiences of their own patients," said Dr. Joshua Tepper, president and CEO of HQO.

"We are pleased to be able to give all practices a tool they need to understand the patient experience ─ and ultimately improve care for Ontarians."

While the Liberal government has poured billions of additional dollars each year into health care since it took office in 2003, demands for even more spending continue to grow. Meanwhile, critics say the government's efficiency drive to streamline smaller community hospitals into bigger health-care centres to boost health services is eroding patient care.

As part of the patient survey project, HQO worked closely with Patients Canada and the Ontario Patient Relations Association to include patient perspectives into the survey's design.

"Learning from patient and caregiver stories is vital to providing high-quality primary care," said Dr. Sholom Glouberman, president of Patients Canada, a health-care advocacy group.

"Over the last several months, patients ─ Patients Canada among them ─ have worked with HQO on this initiative to ensure that the patient point of view helps inform changes that can transform our health system."

Besides the Ontario Health Ministry, other groups that helped with the pilot project included the Ontario Medical Association, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Nurse Practitioners' Association of Ontario, Patients Canada, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario and and Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario.

"Family health teams across Ontario are focused on delivering comprehensive primary care that is truly patient-centred," said Angie Heydon, the association's executive director.

"We are pleased to participate in this project to advance our understanding of the patient experience in primary care."

Health Quality Ontario is an independent government agency, created under the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act in 2005.

In HQO's early years, the Ontario government asked the agency to measure and report on the quality of long-term care services and resident satisfaction as well as home-care services.

Health agency unveils new patient survey

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