Canadian Community Health Survey, 2013: Rapid response on access to health care services and waiting times

The CCHS is a cross-sectional survey that collects information related to health status, health care utilization and health determinants for the Canadian population. It relies upon a large sample of respondents and is designed to provide reliable estimates at the health region level. The CCHS has the following objectives: Support health surveillance programs by providing health data at the national, provincial and intra-provincial levels; Provide a single data source for health research on small populations and rare characteristics; Timely release of information easily accessible to a diverse community of users; Create a flexible survey instrument that includes a rapid response option to address emerging issues related to the health of the population. Since 2007, data for the CCHS are collected yearly instead of every two years. While a sample of approximately 130,000 respondents were interviewed during the reference periods of 2001, 2003 and 2005, the sample size was changed to 65,000 respondents each year starting in 2007. The Access to Health Care Services and Waiting Times rapid response module aimed to collect information about respondents' experiences and perceptions regarding access and waiting times for various types of health care services. Additionally, respondents were asked whether they have a regular medical doctor and where they go when sick or needing advice about health. The addition of these questions to the CCHS was sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.