Survey of Health Care Clinics in Canada (SHCCC)

Detailed information for 2024

The Survey on Health Care Clinics in Canada seeks to understand patient access to care in Canada. Cycle 2 focuses on private health clinics that offer medical and diagnostic tests, virtual health care, surgical services, and medically necessary services offered by nurse practitioners.

Data will be used to maintain the Canadian Business Register. Responses will remain confidential. The survey is being conducted in partnership with Health Canada, the survey sponsor.

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The Survey on Health Care Clinics in Canada aims to better understand patient access to care in Canada. Cycle 2 of the survey focuses on private health clinics that offer medical and diagnostic tests, virtual health care services, surgical services and procedures, as well as medically necessary services offered by nurse practitioners. The survey also includes clinics that operate on a subscription, membership, or enrollment fee basis. The survey is being conducted in partnership with Health Canada, who is the survey sponsor.

The questions focus on the number of medically necessary services provided in the previous fiscal year and whether these services were charged directly to patients insured under a provincial or territorial health care insurance plan. The survey also collects information on the total amount charged directly to patients for these services.

Data on operating revenue and expenses will be used to maintain the Canadian Business Register which lists all active businesses in Canada.

Responses to the Survey on Health Care Clinics in Canada will remain confidential.

Reference period: The 12-month fiscal period for which the final day occurs on or between April 1st of the reference year and March 31st of the following year.

Collection period: June through September following the year after the reference period

Subjects

• Health
• Health care services

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population consists of all private sector establishments classified to the codes 621110 - Offices of physicians, 621494 - Community Health Centres and 621510 - Medical and diagnostic laboratories according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2022 during the reference year.

Instrument design

The Survey on Health Care Clinics in Canada is administered as part of the Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP). As such, it is conducted online using a secure electronic questionnaire platform.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Sampling unit:

The sampling unit is the establishment, as defined on the Business Register.

Stratification method:

Prior to the selection of a random sample, establishments are classified into homogeneous groups (i.e., groups with the same NAICS codes, same geography, and same ownership structure). Then, each group is divided into sub-groups (i.e. small, medium or large), called strata, based on the annual revenue.

Sampling and sub-sampling:

Following stratification, a sample, of a predetermined size, is allocated into each stratum, with the objective of optimizing the overall quality of the survey while respecting the available resources. The sample allocation can result in two kinds of strata: take-all strata where all units are sampled with certainty, and take-some strata where a sample of units are randomly selected.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2025-06-10 to 2025-09-02

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents and extracted from administrative files.

Data were collected using an electronic questionnaire. Respondents were contacted by telephone interviewers who also followed-up on questionnaires that failed specific edit checks. Respondents were offered both English and French questionnaires.

A strategy to replace survey data with tax data has been introduced to reduce the response burden and survey costs. The strategy involves using tax data instead of survey data for some simple units (for example, a single location and a single activity).

As part of the Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP), T1 tax data are used for unincorporated businesses and T2 tax data for incorporated businesses. Data replacement may be used to correct outliers or to replace partially or completely missing data. Tax data may also be used to reconcile survey data.

Data integration combines data from multiple data sources including survey data collected from respondents, administrative data from the Canadian Revenue Agency or other forms of auxiliary data when applicable. During the data integration process, data are imported, transformed, validated, aggregated and linked from the different data source providers into the formats, structures and levels required for IBSP processing. Administrative data are used in a data replacement strategy for a large number of financial variables for most small and medium enterprises and a select group of large enterprises to avoid collection of these variables. Administrative data are also used as an auxiliary source of data for editing and imputation when respondent data is not available.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .