(Quebec) With his new “patient experience” index, Minister Christian Dubé wants to stimulate competition between institutions to increase the efficiency of the health network. The opposition calls the initiative a “smoke show”.
As La Presse reported, the Minister of Health announced Thursday the deployment of a pilot project that will allow Quebecers to evaluate their experience in the public health network as they do in restaurants. The principle is relatively simple: during his visit to the hospital, for example, the user will receive a QR code which will allow him to access an online questionnaire.
“[This is] another step in the Health Plan that I find important. I put a lot of emphasis on the fact that we wanted to improve the patient experience […] and the best way is to ask patients what experience they have had when they are in contact with the hospital network. “, explained Minister Dubé in a press scrum upon his arrival at the question period.
According to the Minister, his tool will be used to “measure the improvement” in the field of his recovery plan, but also to compare establishments with each other. “It’s a question of competitiveness, too,” he said, taking the example of the crisis cell created to intervene in emergencies.
“We put people who had best practices together to help those who might need some advice,” he says. In the Chamber, he explained that comparing establishments makes it possible to identify best practices and then extend them to the entire network. It also makes it possible to target what works less well for intervention, he said.
The technology has been tested for several weeks at four sites (CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, CHU Sainte-Justine, CIUSSS du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and CISSS de la Côte-Nord) to the collection of the first data. The Legault government plans to extend its aims to the entire network.
The first results will be revealed next Tuesday during the next update of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) dashboard under the “Patient Experience” indicator.
Were the deadlines acceptable? Have you been treated with respect? Did you have enough time to ask your questions? Users will be able to give a score from 0 to 10 on different statements about the experience. The patient will also be asked to give a general appreciation of his passage through the network. It is this last piece of data that will be published in the dashboard and that will make it possible to establish a general satisfaction rate, in percentage.
Parti Québécois MP Joël Arseneau and Liberal Jennifer Maccarone called Minister Dubé’s initiative a “smoke show”.
“I don’t know where we’re going with this, but we’re working hard to make people realize the system isn’t working,” Arseneau said Thursday.
“Once we know, with supporting evidence, what we already know with the comments we hear in the public space about the fact that the system is all wrong, will it be the opportunity for the government to say, “Does that reinforce my idea of making an even more pronounced shift towards the private sector?” asked the member for Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
“It’s going to be important to make sure that we have professionals to provide care because we have waiting lists that are very long, then citizens who are suffering because they don’t have no access to care,” said MP Jennifer Maccarone.
For his part, the deputy of Quebec solidaire Vincent Marissal does not say he is against the idea on the merits. “If Mr. Dubé wants to create another scoreboard, so be it. He has a slightly tech-savvy side, our Minister of Health. But the situation on the ground, she is known, then her new gadget will not give any more nurses for the patients and the patients of Quebec,” he said.