Big New Metrics That Matter for Health System Integration.

As Canadian healthcare moves toward integrated care, it lacks "North Star" metrics, relying instead on hospital-centric indicators that miss the patient experience. Building on the integrated care framework by Anne Wojtak and Jodeme Goldhar, this paper argues for shifting from measuring system activity to measuring the burden placed on patients and caregivers. It proposes three new metrics: the System Friction Ratio, the Caregiver Latency Index and the Patient-Reported Burden Score. To achieve true population health, we must stop counting hospital-focused administrative outputs and start measuring the friction patients and families face when navigating the system.