​​Every health care system needs to measure how it is doing so it can improve, and inform citizens whether the system is moving in the right direction and providing high value for their money. What we measure helps us identify and focus our efforts on the most burning issues and concerns. It is critical not to overwhelm health care professionals with the burden of measuring. 

The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and Health Quality Ontario (HQO) (soon to be a part of Ontario Health) began working together in November 2017 on an initiative to stop excessive measurement and prioritize what matters. The objective of this collaboration is to ensure that efforts to measure and report performance indicators in hospitals support better patient outcomes and mitigate the burden of collecting and reporting. The timing of this initiative aligns with broader system changes taking place to end hallway healthcare, reduce red tape and address the fiscal and capacity pressures on Ontario hospitals.

Together the two organizations have developed a recommendation ​report titled A Sustainable Indicator Reduction and Management Strategy for the Ontario Hospital Sector. Although the initiative initially focused on hospital indicators, the recommendations in this report can be applied more broadly to performance measurement for the entire health system. 

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