TORONTO – The number of hospital beds occupied by patients who don’t need to be there and are waiting to receive healthcare elsewhere could fill 10 large hospitals, according to an annual report by the agency that monitors the performance of Ontario’s health system. Read More

SAINT JOHN, N.B. – Patients of the New Brunswick Heart Centre (NBHC) can expect reduced wait times and improved access to care as a result of an innovative project that the heart centre embarked on a little more than one year ago. Read More

NEW YORK – Canada placed third from the bottom in a major new study of healthcare in 11 affluent nations, a score that reflects this country’s poor performance on measures such as infant mortality, access to after-hours medical care and the affordability of dental visits and prescription drugs. Read More

VANCOUVER – Canadian patients waited longer than ever this year for medical treatment, finds a new study released by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. Read More

NEWMARKET, Ont. – Southlake Regional Health Centre has issued an RFP for a real-time patient experience system. The goal is to develop a sustainable process to allow real-time data collection related to the Ultimate Hospital Experience. Survey content and process will be standardized and the data will be used to capture metrics for multiple initiatives. Read More

OTTAWA – A survey of primary care in 10 industrialized countries shows Canada at the low end of the pack when it comes to many measurements of quality. In particular, the Commonwealth Fund’s survey found only 53% of Canadian doctors reporting that patients who request a same-day or next-day appointment can get one. That puts Canada in ninth place in this category – with Switzerland at the top (85%) and Sweden at the bottom (42%). Read More