April 29, 2026 (Mississauga, ON) – Trillium Health Partners is proud to announce the development of Ontario’s first caregiver experience survey. The survey will be co-designed directly with caregivers and rooted in a four-year caregiver research study led by Dr. Kerry Kuluski, Scientist and Research Chair, at Trillium Health Partners’ Institute for Better Health. This initiative marks a major step forward in ensuring caregivers, who play an essential role in a patient’s health journey, can meaningfully shape health system improvements.
“Caregivers bring insights that the information we currently collect doesn’t capture – they see the patient journey from beginning to end,” says Dr. Kuluski, who holds the Dr. Mathias Gysler Research Chair in Patient- and Family-Centred Care. “By co-designing this survey with caregivers, we are honouring their experiences, valuing their expertise, and ensuring their voices guide more compassionate, person-centred care.”
The caregiver experience survey builds directly on the success of Trillium Health Partners’ digital patient experience program. Launched on the Qualtrics platform in March 2023, Trillium Health Partners has created one of the most robust patient feedback systems in Canada, with more than 97,000 responses collected to date. In parallel, 184,000 open-ended responses have generated valuable, experience-based insights that empower clinical teams to continuously improve care and better meet the needs of patients and families.
Before adopting Qualtrics, Trillium Health Partners relied on paper and telephone surveys that reached only a small sample of patients and produced quarterly, static results that were often out of date. Today, the hospital’s teams access continuously updated dashboards in real time, enabling rapid identification of actionable insights and trends. The platform also uses AI to prompt more detailed responses and summarize themes.
The impact has been profound. Survey responses increased from 3,495 (baseline FY2021-22) to 35,223 in FY2025-26 – a 907 per cent increase. Patient insights have directly informed Trillium Health Partners’ strategic plan, including its goal of achieving patient and caregiver experience greater than nine out of 10.
“Listening to patients, families, and caregivers is at the heart of our vision to create a new kind of health care for a healthier community,” says Dr. Amir Ginzburg, Executive Vice President, Quality, Risk and Patient Experience at Trillium Health Partners. “Our patient experience surveys ensure that every improvement we make is grounded in patient, caregiver and community voices.”
Through analysis of patient surveys, Trillium Heath Partners identified themes that go beyond demographics, including emotional support, especially around fears, worries, and anxiety, as a key driver of overall experience. These insights have driven improvements at the bedside and during treatment such as stronger discharge communication in Medicine programs and improved emotional support practices in Mental Health units, which increased their experience score by eight per cent.
Developed with caregivers and executed through the Qualtrics platform, the new caregiver survey will be embedded in hospital operations and will support continuous quality improvement across clinical programs. “As a caregiver, contributing to the design of this survey is incredibly meaningful,” says Bhavini Patel, Co-Chair, Caregiver Advisory Board, Institute for Better Health. “Caregivers carry so much on their shoulders and in their hearts. Sharing their experiences through the survey will help them feel seen, and the data will reveal how best to support this integral group as they help patients.”
The collaborative design and launch of the caregiver experience survey – building on the success of Trillium Health Partners’ digital patient experience program – further positions Trillium Health Partners as a fully realized Learning Health System, where data, evidence, and insights from lived experience are embedded into every aspect of care, translating discovery into impact to drive health system excellence and shape better health for all.
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About Trillium Health Partners and the Institute for Better Health
Trillium Health Partners is one of Canada’s largest community-based hospital systems, comprising Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga Hospital, and Queensway Health Centre. Serving the diverse populations of Mississauga, West Toronto, and surrounding communities, Trillium Health Partners is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto, an associate member of the Toronto Academic Health Science Network, and part of Mississauga Health (Ontario Health Team). The Institute for Better Health drives innovative research and practical solutions to enhance health service delivery and population health, supporting Trillium Health Partners’ vision to create a new kind of health care for a healthier community.
For more information, visit
trilliumhealthpartners.ca and
instituteforbetterhealth.com.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Amanda Etty
Senior Communications Advisor, Trillium Health Partners
Amanda.Etty@thp.ca | 437-235-2961
