The Ontario Health Quality Council (OHQC) has just released its annual report on Ontario’s health system. The report provides every Ontario citizen with factual and comprehensible updates on the improvements made by their health care providers. And this year, the improvements are evident.
A notable progression includes the wait times for some key procedures, which have decreased dramatically in recent years. For instance, from 2005 to 2008, wait times for knee replacements have declined from 440 days to 189 days. Meanwhile, the wait times for cataract surgery have decreased from a defective 310 days to only about 103 days.
However, the Ontario system is still lacking in other important jurisdictions, like in the application and usage of system-wide technology tools such as electronic records. The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), alongside the Ontario government, aims to implement electronic health records by 2015. Despite system lags, the OHA remains hopeful that the progress made in the last ten years continues as the health system further develops and improves for Ontario patients.
