Overview
Planning for Renewal: Mapping Primary Health Care in British Columbia
- Print version of report (limited PHC profiles) [PDF: 77 MB]
- Reseach Summary: Mapping Primary Health Care in BC
On the Road to Renewal: Mapping Primary Health Care in BC (2009)
This project is CHSPR's first step in providing information resources to inform the renewal of primary health care in British Columbia. Building on the BC Health Atlas, it presents a range of profiles that describe the demographic, socioeconomic and health status of the population, temporal changes in population size, the level of supply and geographic distribution of physicians and nurses, and patterns of use of primary health care and related services.
Rather than attempting to provide a complete picture, Mapping Primary Health Care in BC highlights information gaps to better guide the development of system-level evaluation and performance measurement tools.
Approach
This project relies primarily on readily available data, now aggregated in one place for ease of access, mapped to increase understanding of geographic variation and distribution, and profiled in a format that illustrates the relationship between health status and use of primary health care and related services.
Each profile below illustrates the relationship between health status and PHC services use and includes both provincial and health authority maps. Accompanying data tables are also provided.
Full Version of Report
| Background | Contents |
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These sections provide an overview of our use of premature mortality rate, a brief discussion of methods, and an explanation of the conceptual framework used to structure this report. |
| PHC Contexts | |||
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| In order to design a PHC system responsive to the needs of various communities, it is important to understand the demographic and health characteristics of the population, as well as contextual factors that could affect the use of primary health care. This section provides information on population density, population growth, demographics and health status. The socioeconomic risk index and children at risk index are included as indicators of important social and economic contexts. A number of related profiles can be found in the BC Health Atlas. | |||
| Section | Colour Maps | B+W Maps | Data Tables |
| Population density | |||
| Population growth rate | |||
| Population structure | HTML | ||
| Older adults | |||
| Older adults living alone | |||
| Children and adolescents | |||
| Premature mortality rate | |||
| Potential years of life lost index | |||
| Infant mortality rate | |||
| Children at risk index | |||
| Socioeconomic risk index | |||
| PHC Inputs | |||
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| All PHC systems rely on financial, material and human resources to deliver care. Profiles in this section provide information on expenditures on primary health care services, and the supply and distribution of health care professionals who deliver these services. | |||
| Section | Colour Maps | B+W Maps | Data Tables |
| Expenditures: general practice services | |||
| Supply: general practice providers | |||
| Location of general practice providers | |||
| Supply of nurses | |||
| PHC Outputs | |||
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| PHC outputs represent the interface between British Columbians and care providers, often described as access to health care. Access has a number of different dimensions that relate to care availability, geographic proximity to care, affordability and the receipt of certain types of care. These profiles provide information on the patterns of use and delivery of PHC and related services. Accessibility is measured as the amount of general practice services people receive in their own, or a geographically adjacent, local health area. A number of related profiles can be found in the BC Health Atlas. | |||
| Section | Colour Maps | B+W Maps | Data Tables |
| Access to general practice services | |||
| Emergency room visits | |||
| Home-based professional services | |||
| Home support services | |||
| Diabetes | |||
| Congestive heart failure | |||
| PHC Outcomes | Contents |
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| Immediate outcomes are those for which PHC is most responsible: maintaining or improving the health of the PHC workforce, increasing knowledge about health and health care, reducing the risk, duration and effects of acute and episodic conditions, and, reducing the risks and effects of continuing health conditions. PHC has less influence over intermediate and final outcomes, but does exert influence by acting as a gatekeeper to other health care sectors. The following profiles from the BC Health Atlas offer a glimpse into the sectors influenced by PHC services. |
| Discussion | Contents |
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This section describes the relationship between population health status (or need for health care), the supply of general practice providers, and the use of PHC and related services. We assess whether health status is related to supply of providers and use of services. |
| Resources | Contents |
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Full definitions, methodology, and sources for all profiles are provided in Definitions and technical notes. More detail on the derivation of the four general practice profiles is provided in Appendix 1. Appendix 2 provides extra information on the source of denominator populations. |
Project Team
- Contact: Diane Watson
- Hans Krueger
Funding
- BC Ministry of Health
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SAVE THE DATE! Feb 28-29, 2012
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| Register Now! |
UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
201 - 2206 East Mall, Vancouver BC, V6T 1Z3
Tel: 604.822.4969
Fax: 604.822.5690
E-mail: enquire@chspr.ubc.ca