It turns out Prince George has one of the best hospitals in Canada, according to a new report, but they still have a ways to go.
The University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) has been recognized nationally, but is also near the bottom of the barrell in the best hospital's of 2019 in a new study by Statista Inc. and released by Newsweek.
A total of 11 countries were selected: Canada, USA, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Israel.
Each hospital in the rankings received a score based on:
- Recommendations from peers
- Patient experiences
- Medical KPIs (key performance indicators) were collected from public sources for most countries.
Recommendations from peers included roughly 40,000 that took part in the survey in the 11 selected countries through an online survey.
- Participants were asked to recommend hospitals in their own country as well in other countries. The study points out that recommendations for own employer/hospital were not allowed
Patient experiences differed from country to country.
- For most of the 11 countries, data from existing patient surveys were collected
- Canada, Singapore, Australia, Japan, and the UK did not have patient experiences from official sources, which resulted in a lower weight in the scoring model. These countries used public data as a substitute
- Examples of topics in the survey:
- General satisfaction with the hospital
- Recommendation of the hospital
- Satisfaction with medical care
- Satisfaction with service and organization
KPIs will differ between countries. Examples of that data include:
- Data based on the quality of care for specific treatments
- Data on hygiene measures and patient safety
- Data on the number of patients per doctor and per nurse
Here is how each score ended up being calculated:
- Recommendations from peers
- National - 50 per cent (Recommendations from peers in the respective country)
- International - five per cent (Recommendations from peers in other countries)
- Patient experience:
- 15 per cent
- Medical KPIs on hospitals:
- 30 per cent
UHNBC finished 84 out of 100 top hospitals in the country based on the above formula. The only other B.C. hospitals listed were:
- Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH) - seven (87.8)
- Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) - nine (87.8)
- Victoria General Hospital - 12 (87.1)
- UBC Hospital (UBC) - 24 (85)
- Lions Gate Hospital - 69 (76.1)
- Richmond Hospital - 70 (75.8)
- Peach Arch Hospital - 73 (75.4)
- Surrey Memorial Hospital - 81 (74.1)
- University Hospital of Northern British Columbia - 84 (74)
Northern Health says they regularly monitor industry standard measures provided through the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI):
o This includes metrics such as Hospital Standardized Mortality Rate (HSMR – number of deaths in hospital), and hospital infection rates (C-difficile, MRSA)
o We also audit and monitor compliance with proper hand hygiene standards
"We are pleased with our quality performance, and we follow up in instances where improvements are required," A Northern Health spokesperson tells PrinceGeorgeMatters.number one ranked hospital in Canada according to the study is Toronto General Hospital that finished with a score of 91.1.
Editor's note: For clarification, the headline has been updated. Comments from Northern Health have also since been added.
