Gauging the health of our health care system

In a CMAJ commentary,¹ Noralou Roos says, “although only 20% of Canadians report having confidence in the health care system, more than 50% say that the medical care they and their family personally received in the last year was very good or excellent,” quoting a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.²

Is it not odd that as many as 20% of Canadians have confidence in the health care system when they feel that the chances that their medical care will be very good or excellent are barely above 50%? Would this satisfation rate be acceptable in other industries? How many of us would have confidence in an auto repair shop that produced satisfaction rates barely above 50%? Does the health care industry have appropriate aspirations?

Signature

David Zitner Director of
Medical Informatics Faculty of Medicine Dalhousie University Halifax, NS