CIHI’s OECD International Comparisons Show Canada Continues to Lag Behind Other OECD Countries on Patient Safety Measures

Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released its OECD International Comparisons that show how Canada ranks on health measures among OECD countries. CIHI’s interactive web tool compares results for Canada’s provinces with those for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 6 dimensions of care: Health status; Access to care; Patient safety; Non-medical determinants of health; Quality of care; and Prescribing in primary care. The International Comparisons show Canada continues to lag behind other OECD countries on measures of patient safety. Compared with other countries, Canada does a good job of documenting, reporting and acting on patient safety events. In Canada, over the past 2 years, 553 foreign bodies (such as sponges and instruments) were left behind in patients after surgery. This represents a 14% increase over the last 5 years and more than 2 times the average rate of 12 reporting countries.

Read more:

• OECD International Comparisons: https://www.cihi.ca/en/oecd-interactive-tool-international-comparisons
• Canadian Institute for Health Information. Canada continues to lag behind other OECD countries on measures of patient safety. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2019.