General Public

Description:  While many Canadians believe we have one of the best health care systems in the world, recent international rankings for health care quality place Canada in the middle or at the bottom of the pack. This report calls for the establishment of common and measureable goals to achieve quality improvement in Canada’s health care systems.

Description:  Canadians want to know more about the health care system that they care about. There are currently few places to go for factual, easy to understand information about the health care system. Healthy Debate attempts to fill this gap by making every effort to provide unbiased information that will lead to thoughtful deliberation and informed opinions. Our vision: A high quality health care system designed by an informed population. Our mission: 1. To provide accurate, easily accessible information about health care to the public, practitioners, students, managers and policy makers. 2. To provide a forum for accessible and thoughtful deliberation about Alberta, Ontario and Canada’s health care systems. 3. To increase the frequency with which health system leaders use evidence and informed public input when making policy and management decisions.

Description:  A first in Canada, this online resource developed by CBC's flagship investigative news program, the fifth estate, is designed to bring more transparency and accountability to our health care system and to arm Canadians with the information they need to inform themselves when preparing for a hospital stay. We relied on data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) as reported by more than 600 Canadian hospitals. CIHI is a taxpayer-funded non-profit organization that acts as a storehouse of statistics on Canadian hospitals and other health-care data. Users of the website can look up individual hospital profiles and make their own assessments based on information such as how many patients died after major surgery or how often patients are forced to return to hospital after being sent home. We have supplemented these ratings with other information that should be easily available but isn't always — crucial data such as the incidence of the common hospital-acquired infections C. difficile and MRSA, emergency department wait times, nurse staffing levels and pain control.

Description:  The IWK Health Centre provides quality care to women, children, youth and families in the Maritime provinces and beyond. In addition to providing highly specialized (tertiary) care, the IWK also provides primary care services. The IWK is engaged in leading-edge research; works to promote healthy lifestyles for families; and supports education opportunities for health professionals and other learners. The IWK Health Centre provides quality care to women, children, youth and families in the Maritime provinces and beyond.