Putting performance measurement recommendations into practice: Building on current practices

Improving performance measurement within the Canadian healthcare system is proving to be challenging despite advances in evidence-informed care and best practices for healthcare delivery. Perhaps what is most challenging is the need to meet requirements to measure what most Canadians hold dear - being seen as a person during a healthcare encounter. Measures of healthcare delivery have typically been developed to capture patient satisfaction during isolated healthcare encounters. Such measures simply do not get to the essence of what matters to patients and their families. This paper outlines a response to the paper by Kuluski and colleagues (2017) that calls for a thorough review of the way data are currently captured on patients' experiences with healthcare. Using geriatric medicine as a context, the authors highlight elements of our current care delivery models that must be preserved, modified or created to allow patients and families to play a larger role in improving our healthcare system.