Patient Care Quality - Help Shape B.C.'s Health Care Quality Process - Public Survey

Introduction

The Ministry of Health works with a provincial health authority, five regional health authorities, and a First Nations health authority to provide health care and related services to British Columbians. When patients or care providers have concerns about a health care experience — including about racism and discrimination — there are processes in place to review what happened, respond to concerns, and improve future care. The ministry is working to make two of these processes more accessible, effective, culturally safe, and transparent: 

• Patient Care Quality (PCQ) Program: Each health authority has a Patient Care Quality Office where patients or someone they trust can share concerns about their health care and receive a response. If concerns are not resolved, they can be independently reviewed by the Patient Care Quality Review Board (PCQRB), which may make recommendations for resolution and quality improvement to health authorities and/or the Minister of Health.
• Health Care Reviews: When something goes wrong, health care providers review what happened to understand why it occurred and how to prevent it in the future. Currently, legal protections allow providers to speak openly during these reviews without their discussions being used in court. However, these protections can sometimes limit what information can be shared with patients and families. 

We invite you to help shape what comes next. 

How your information will be used

We will use what we learn from this survey to: 

• inform improvements to health care quality review processes 
• help shape how the health care system responds to patient concerns, including concerns about racism and discrimination  

To create review processes that are safe, easy to access, and able to create real change we need to hear from communities who may be more affected by harm in health care or who may face barriers when submitting a concern or taking part in a patient care quality review. To help us centre the voices and experiences of these communities, public survey respondents will be asked to self-identify where they are comfortable doing so. 
 
Please know that:

• your responses will be kept confidential
• the survey will not ask for personal information that can identify you
• any identifying technical information (for example, your IP address) will not be connected to your responses in reporting 

Your voice matters and will help build a health care system that better supports healing and accountability.

Your involvement

We want to understand what you expect from a better health care review process. Specifically, we're asking about:

• How and when you would want to share concerns
• What information you want to receive during and after a review
• Who should be allowed to see the results of a review for learning and quality improvement
• What supports you would you need throughout the process
• How to make the process respectful and safe

Please note: When we talk about “health care concerns or incidents” in this survey, we mean any experience where your care caused you harm, put you at risk or did not meet your needs. This includes experiences of racism, discrimination, or culturally unsafe care. It can also include things like medication errors, communication problems, or disrespectful treatment. All concerns are important and help improve health care.

Before you begin

Before you start, please take a moment to read the information below about your participation. 

• Participation in this survey is voluntary
• You may skip any questions you do not want to answer
• You can stop the survey at any time without providing a reason
• This survey takes approximately 20 minutes to complete
• A summary of survey results will be shared publicly in early 2027
• The survey will close on June 26 at 4:00 pm PT

Participation is voluntary. Not participating or choosing not to answer certain questions will not affect your access to any government benefits or services.