Provincial health systems up for comparison as a result of work undertaken by University of Regina faculty member

News Release Release Date: January 12, 2012 8:00 a.m.

A faculty member at the University of Regina has compiled statistics comparing health care in provincial health systems. Dr. Wallace Lockhart’s work looks at population health and health care system performance. Dr. Lockhart is a faculty member in accounting in Business Administration at the University.

In the area of population health, the provincial report cards compare five groups of indicators, including behaviours such as physical activity, smoking and binge drinking. In the area of health care system performance, there are seven categories, including wait times and access to care.

“The report cards structure the data in a format that enables comparison of a large number of indicators,” said Lockhart. “The standardized, indexed scoring system makes it possible to compare health system performance across the provinces and between health regions.”

The data used in Dr. Lockhart’s study comes from the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Community Health Survey.

In the population health category, British Columbia ranked number one, followed by Quebec and Ontario.

In the Health care system performance category, Manitoba ranked number one, followed by New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.