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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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Asthma hospital stays by children and youth

  • Release summary
  • Published
Learn about trends and socio-economic inequalities in asthma hospital stays among children and youth at the provincial/territorial and national levels.

Benchmarking Canada's Health System

  • Report
  • Published
Comparing countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development using selected health care indicators, including disease prevalence, mortality and risk factors, quality of care, access to care and costs.

Cardiac Care Quality Indicators Report (PDF)

  • Report
  • Published
Provides pan-Canadian, comparable information on mortality and readmission outcomes following common cardiac procedures.

Care in Canadian ICUs (PDF)

  • Report
  • Published
Summary of a report on care in Canadian intensive care units and future health system challenges in Canada.

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.

Acute care: Data tables

Acute care: Data tables kathschach

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

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Acute care: Indicators

Acute care: Indicators kathschach

This page lists CIHI’s indicators on acute care.

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All Patients Readmitted to Hospital

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the risk-adjusted rate of urgent readmissions within 30 days of discharge for episodes of care for several patient groups.

Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the age-standardized acute care hospitalization rate for conditions where appropriate ambulatory care prevents or reduces the need for admission to hospital.

Caesarean Section Rate

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the crude rate of all Caesarean sections (C-sections) per 100 deliveries. Lower rates are desirable.

Cardiac Revascularization Rate

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the age-standardized rate of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery performed on inpatients in acute care hospitals or percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) performed on patients in acute care hospitals, same-day surgery…

CIHI Hospital Frailty Risk Measure (HFRM)

  • Indicator
  • Published
This is an acute care contextual measure developed to characterize the risk of frailty among seniors in hospitals across Canada.

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.

Communication With Nurses

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

Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Rate

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the age-standardized rate of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery performed on inpatients in acute care hospitals, per 100,000 population age 18 and older.

Cost of a Standard Hospital Stay

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator gives the ratio of a hospital’s total acute inpatient expenses to the number of acute inpatient cases adjusted for resource use (RIW).

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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Wait time metadata

  • Metadata
  • Published
Metadata on surgical procedure wait times, including hip and knee replacement, hip fracture repair, cataract surgery, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), radiation therapy and diagnostic imaging (MRI and CT scan).

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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Unintended harms: How CIHI is helping Canadians receive safer care

  • Bulletin
  • Published
Health systems across the country continuously strive to make Canadian health care safer. Learn how we help these efforts through an interview with Yana Gurevich, manager of Health Indicators and Client Support, and Mélanie Josée Davidson, director of…

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.

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Other education resources

Resources offered through CIHI include the following:

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Decision-Support Guide: CMG+

  • User guide
  • Published
This product was developed to increase clients' ability to understand and use Case Mix Group+ (CMG+) grouping information and to address increasing demands for case mix understanding and direction on how to use case mix measures and products to inform…

Guidelines to Support ALC Designation

  • Information sheet
  • Published
Clinical and physician leaders can use the following information to support ALC designation of patients in acute inpatient care.

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.