Canadian think tank SecondStreet.org released a policy brief today that examines the Google review scores for 83 major hospitals across the country in 2024, including the comments left by patients and their families. 

“When you sift through comments left by patients, Canadians are overwhelmingly upset by long wait times in the system,” said SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig. “There are compliments too, but the average hospital scored 2.91 out of five which is low when you consider that many people wouldn’t dine in a restaurant with the same score.”

Highlights from this research include:

• The average score provided during the year 2024 for the 83 hospitals was 2.91 (out of five). The five top-ranked and five lowest-ranked hospitals that year were respectively:

1) Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in B.C. (4.34) 

2) Valley Regional Hospital in Nova Scotia (3.77) 

3) Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus in Quebec (3.71)

4) Mount Sinai Hospital in Ontario (3.68)

5) St. Paul’s Hospital in B.C. (3.64)

…

79) WRHN @ Midtown in Kitchener, Ontario (2.18) 

80) William Osler Health System – Etobicoke General Hospital in Ontario (2.13)

81) Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg (2.08)

82) William Osler Health System – Brampton Civic Hospital in Ontario (2.04)

83) Surrey Memorial Hospital in B.C. (2.03)

• The most commonly used word pairings in the comments included wait times, wait room and hours waiting. It was common to see many long wait times noted, such as “6 hours.”
• Provincial averages, based on the hospitals reviewed, saw Saskatchewan (3.19) rank first, followed by British Columbia (2.96), Nova Scotia (2.93), Quebec (2.91), Alberta (2.87), Manitoba (2.78), Ontario (2.77) and New Brunswick (2.65). The provincial average was 2.88. (PEI and Newfoundland not included as only one hospital reviewed for those two provinces.)

“Some of the hospitals with higher scores could provide tips to some of the lower performing hospitals,” added Colin Craig, President of SecondStreet.org. “Alternatively, Canadian hospitals could look to better-performing European hospitals for solutions as well.”

To view the report – click here