Short-form Surveys
The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) is committed to enabling access to insightful tools that can support hospitals in their efforts to improve care quality and experience. Since 2019, the OHA has been paving the path forward to modernize patient experience measurement across Ontario's hospital sector.
In collaboration with hospital and system stakeholders, the OHA has developed a library of standardized non-proprietary short-form survey instruments that:
- Meet the growing appetite for shorter, more targeted tools that yield actionable insights
- Efficiently capture patient feedback on the areas of care that matter most
- Better align with digital surveying modes that foster access to near real-time data and support rapid cycle improvements
- Support hospitals in meeting accreditation and the Ministry of Health's program requirements (e.g., Ontario's Pay for Results Program (P4R)).
The OHA appreciates the expertise and guidance provided by committee members, and the time and valuable insights shared by patients to develop the new instruments.
Available Surveys
Under the OHA's patient experience measurement program, 12 short-form survey instruments (login required) are available in English and French for hospital use across a wide range of clinical settings. The OHA has pre-programmed these surveys in the new patient experience measurement platform for streamlined implementation. Hospitals interested in multi-lingual surveying are asked to connect with the OHA at patientexperience@oha.com
Hospitals participating in the OHA's Peer Benchmarking Initiative can access benchmark scores, should benchmarking thresholds be met, through the Patient Experience Peer Benchmarking Dashboard.
To support the consolidation of care experience measurement, the OHA and Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO) partnered in 2024 to adapt, operationalize, and streamline the Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit (FS-ICU) survey under the OHA-led program.
Survey Administration Guidelines
The OHA has published data specifications outlining the required data fields and format hospitals must follow to successfully distribute care experience surveys via email or SMS.
Survey administration guidelines are included for all surveys launched after 2024. These guidelines include a copy of the survey in the appendix and outline the default survey configurations pre-programmed in the platform, benchmarking standards and opportunities for customizations to support hospitals in administering the survey across the intended clinical service.
For surveys launched before 2024, the customizable settings guide, and default administrative settings overview summarize opportunities for customizations, and outline the default settings (e.g., survey quarantine rules, frequency of surveying).
Enhancing the Care Experience Instrument Library
Efforts are underway to enhance and modernize the library of patient experience survey instruments. In June 2025, the OHA anticipates launching two new short-form surveys to capture the inpatient and outpatient experience of adult receiving mental health and addictions care.
Survey instruments under development include: Pediatric outpatient care with a virtual care module, pediatric/youth inpatient mental health and addictions care (MH&A), and pediatric/youth outpatient MH&A. Tentatively, these surveys will be launched in Fall 2025.
