Minister skeptical of hospital report

Saskatchewan's finance minister is skeptical of an investigative report on CBC's Fifth Estate that gave Yorkton's hospital a "D" grade.

"I have no idea how, or what criteria was used, to give the Yorkton facility the rating it received and we're going to assess that criteria," said Ken Krawetz, who was in town to speak at the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. "If it indeed means that it's a personnel problem, if it's a provision of services problem, if it's a structural problem, those are all the kinds of things the Minister of Health will review."

Responding to a question from the floor, Krawetz suggested the report was "biased" and raised concern over its self-reporting aspect in which patients were able to rate their hospital experience on the CBC website.

The program, which aired April 12, considered five of 21 criteria used by the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) to measure hospital performance.

The CBC website explains this decision: "Many of the indicators reported by CIHI focus on specialties such as obstetrics and cardiac care, but not all hospitals offer the full range of specialized care.

"We limited ourselves to five measures that assess the quality of general surgical and medical treatment only. Including the specialty services would have significantly reduced the number of hospitals we could rate."

CBC acknowledges, "that there are variables that may or may not have been contemplated within the data and statistical analysis as well as those variables beyond any kind of data collection and assessment."

Nevertheless, the public broadcaster stands by the report pointing to public frustration regarding access to information about Canadian health care systems. For example, 10 out of 13 provincial and territorial health ministries refused outright to release hospital-specific information.

"Above all, Rate My Hospital is designed to inspire discussion," the website states.

"We hope it will spur debate about the quality of our hospital system-the type of debate that in other countries has led to improvements in quality and greater accountability."

There was little else new in Krawetz's presentation. He reviewed the highlights of the 2013-2014 budget released last month to a largely appreciative business audience, specifically touching on those elements of the budget of local interest including funding for Parkland College's new Trades and Technology Centre, renovations to the Invermay long-term care facility and Langenburg's new school.