The Hamilton Spectator released its Condition Critical report card, comparing the performances of Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) across a wide spectrum of 266 different variables that measure population health, wait times, access to care and health system efficiency. The variables were further broken down into seven categories, such as cancer, cardiovascular issues and chronic diseases.
Condition Critical is a report card of performance indicators and population health for the 14 regions that make up Ontario’s LHINs. A total of 266 variables measuring the LHINs was gathered from the 2011 Ontario Health Quality Report; the POWER Study published by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in October 2011; performance indicators included in each LHIN’s 2009/10 annual report; and data from Ontario’s 2011 Cancer System Quality Index. The cumulative rankings for all 266 variables were then calculated for the 14 LHINs to provide an overall ranking.