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Acute care

Acute care kathschach

Acute care for inpatients in hospital refers to necessary treatment for a disease or severe episode of illness provided for a short period of time. CIHI provides valuable insight on the quality of care, patient experiences, cost, volumes and types of acute care cases admitted to Canadian hospitals. CIHI also facilitates the collection of standardized information on acute care through databases such as the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) and the Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB). 

Explore information on acute care. Browse indicators, data tables, reports and other key resources. For information on emergency department and ambulatory care, go to our Emergency and ambulatory care topic page.

Featured material

Frailty among hospitalized seniors

  • Release summary
  • November 30, 2023
Explore information and data related to the CIHI Hospital Frailty Risk Measure, an acute care contextual measure developed to characterize the risk of frailty among seniors.

Indicators

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Reports and releases

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Acute care: Reports and releases

Acute care: Reports and releases kathschach

This page lists acute care reports, stories, infographics and release summaries.

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What are hospitals spending on?

  • Infographic
  • Published
Use this infographic to explore total hospital spending by type of expense and patient care service.

Celebrating the success of CCQI reporting

  • Story
  • Published
Collaboration between CIHI and CCS on the CCQI initiative has contributed to monitoring of and improvements in key areas related to cardiac care interventions across Canada.

Patient experience in Canadian hospitals, 2022

  • Report
  • Published
This report explores key findings from CIHI’s patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) in Canadian acute care hospitals for 2017–2018 to 2020–2021.

Using PREMs data for quality improvement

  • Report
  • Published
Key findings from the Communication With Doctors and Communication With Nurses patient experience measures, highlighting the value of using PREMs data for quality improvement initiatives.

Assessing performance using PREMs data

  • Report
  • Published
Key findings from the Overall Patient Experience measure, highlighting the value of using PREMs data to assess performance

COVID-19’s impact on hospital services

  • Report
  • Published
Discover how hospital care was affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, including cancelled surgeries, hospital admissions, ICU admissions and ventilation needs.

Acute care: Data tables

Acute care: Data tables kathschach

This page lists data tables that provide information about acute care.

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Surgeries Impacted by COVID-19, March 2020 to September 2022 — Data Tables (XLSX)

  • Data tables
  • Published
​These data tables contain information on the estimated number of surgeries completed in Canada for 2 periods: pre-pandemic (January to December 2019) and pandemic (March 2020 to September 2022). Data is provided by age and surgery type at the national…

Acute care: Indicators

Acute care: Indicators kathschach

This page lists CIHI’s indicators on acute care.

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Communication With Doctors

  • Indicator
  • Published
​This measure describes whether doctors communicated well with patients. Results show the percentage of patients who responded most favourably in the CPES-IC survey.

Hospital Deaths (HSMR)

  • Indicator
  • Published
The ratio of the actual number of in-hospital deaths in a region or hospital to the number that would have been expected, based on the types of patients a region or hospital treats.

Hospitalizations Entirely Caused by Alcohol

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator provides the age-standardized rate of hospitalizations with conditions that are wholly (100%) attributable to alcohol, per 100,000 population age 10 and older.

Knee Replacement Rate

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the age-standardized hospitalization rate for all knee replacement procedures performed in acute care hospitals or same-day surgery facilities per 100,000 population age 18 and older.

Hip Replacement Rate

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the hospitalization rate for hip replacement procedures performed in acute care hospitals or same-day surgery facilities per 100,000 population age 18 and older.

Acute care: Tools

Acute care: Tools kathschach

This page lists CIHI’s performance reporting tools that contain acute care data.

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Acute care: Data holdings

Acute care: Data holdings kathschach

This page contains information about CIHI’s data holdings related to acute care.

Discharge Abstract Database

The Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) contains demographic, administrative and clinical data on inpatient hospital discharges. Facilities in all provinces and territories except Quebec are required to report to the DAD. Quebec acute inpatient records are submitted to CIHI through a different process and are included in the Hospital Morbidity Database.

Hospital Morbidity Database

The Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB) is a national data holding that captures administrative, clinical and demographic information on hospital inpatient events. It contains inpatient data collected via the DAD and inpatient records submitted from Quebec. Please note that Quebec day surgery records are part of the HMDB population as of 2012–2013.

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Acute care: News and podcasts

Acute care: News and podcasts kathschach

This page contains media releases, bulletins and podcast episodes about acute care.

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Acute care: Education resources

Acute care: Education resources kathschach

Through our Learning Centre, CIHI provides opportunities for health professionals to understand our evolving reporting systems and the application of our standards, data and analytics. We offer many courses and resources for a variety of audiences, including clinicians, assessors, data submitters and analysts, decision-makers, policy planners and researchers.

Courses and resources are available in a variety of formats, including eLearning modules, PDF and page-based documents, live and recorded web conferences, and videos.

On this page:

 

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With 300 learning products in a variety of areas, we’re sure to have something that meets your needs — and our online courses will always fit your schedule.

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Other education resources

Resources offered through CIHI include the following:

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Hospital Harm FAQ (PDF)

  • FAQ
  • Published
Frequently asked questions related to the Hospital Harm project, including information on the new measure, associated improvement resource and pan-Canadian findings.

Predicting Risk of Hospitalization for COVID-19 (PDF)

  • Information sheet
  • Published
This information sheet outlines a new model to help identify those at the highest risk of hospitalization for severe respiratory illnesses (e.g., pneumonia) and COVID-19.