In the eyes of the beholder: population perspectives on performance priorities for primary care in Canada.

The purposes of this study were to identify the Canadian population's performance priorities for primary care, to ascertain the stability of these priorities over time and to examine variation across priorities among different subgroups of the population. The authors administered a survey of 10 priorities (determined through earlier work) to over 1,000 Canadians in 2001, and again in 2004. Analysis of variance was used to compare the ratings of each priority across the two years. The authors completed a forward stepwise regression analysis to examine the relationships between performance priorities and population characteristics in each year. The overall order of importance ascribed to the 10 performance priorities is sustained from 2001 to 2004, as is the significance and directionality of several relationships between performance priorities and population subgroups distinguished by sex, age, education, income and province. Respondents generally think that the evaluation of primary care services should be predicated on assessments of physicians' technical skill along with their communication skills, but place less emphasis on practice management aspects of primary care. The findings offer a basis for a meaningful, feasible, national public performance reporting strategy for primary healthcare (reform), where measures reflect the 10 performance priorities highly valued by the Canadian population.