An Examination of How Hospitals Use the Reporting Framework Prescribed in the Ontario Hospital Reporting System

This investigative report presents the findings from two studies that examine issues related to data quality in the classification and reporting of financial and operational activity data by Ontario hospitals. It focuses on hospitals' use of the prescribed reporting framework of the Ontario Hospital Reporting System (OHRS) during its first five years.

The study is intended to stimulate discussion among researchers, policy makers and hospital administrators regarding steps that could be taken to minimize the number of unexpected or unusual balances found in the year-end submissions by hospitals, which will ultimately improve the quality of the data used to support decision-making.