Abstract

Increased interest among patients in information about the healthcare system, mounting pressures to reduce costs, and a desire to maintain or improve the quality of care have all contributed to the need for improved performance measurement in healthcare. Advances in data collection, storage and analysis have enhanced the industry's ability to respond to this need. Recent developments in health-services research methods permit the comparison of information across organizations that differ in jurisdiction, size, workload complexity and other key organizational characteristics that affect outcome. This paper will review recent major performance measurement initiatives in Canada and identify several important issues to improve current efforts.