Nova Scotians can now track the success of Tim Houston’s “Action For Health” plan online.
Health Minister Michelle Thompson unveiled a new website featuring an interactive dashboard tracking how the province’s health-care system is performing.
“This is our first shot at it. It may not be perfect, but I think sometimes perfection is the thief of progress,” Thompson said during a media conference Friday morning.
The now-publicly available information includes average ambulance response and off-load times, hospital capacity and performance, and wait-list lengths for continuing care.
It can be broken down by health zone or specific hospitals; information will be updated daily, weekly, quarterly or annually – depending on the sector of the health-care system.
The dashboard will also track employee satisfaction within the health-care system.
“There may be blips; we may go ahead and move back, and we have to appreciate and accept that. But we want people to understand there is a sustained and focused effort to improve health-care.”
Thompson, while pleased with the move to publicize this information, did clarify that the information shouldn’t influence Nova Scotians’ decisions around seeking care.
“I want to make sure people understand that it actually is a performance website and that it should be used retrospectively.”
The launch of the website comes after Premier Tim Houston’s “Action for Health” plan – which was criticized for the lack of benchmarks to measure its success – was released in April.
“We want Nova Scotians to see where we are, we want health-care workers to see where we are, and we want to see that our actions are actually making improvements as we move along,” Thompson said.
