Updated as of January 22, 2016
- The SAMI score displayed is the average SAMI score for teams contributing data for this indicator that are among the “peer group” you selected. If you didn’t select a peer group, then it is the average SAMI score for all teams contributing data for the indicator.
- For teams who signed up for the HQO Primary Care Practice Group Report, your SAMI score can be found by logging in through the HQO portal and accessing the additional excel worksheet (addendum to the core report). If your team did not sign up for this report, you will likely not know what your SAMI score is – prepare for the next iterations by signing up for the Group-Level report.
- The ‘average’ patient or population has a SAMI score of 1.0.
- A SAMI score of 1.40 can be interpreted as an expected need for primary health care that is 40% higher than in the average patient.
- A SAMI score of 0.88 can be interpreted as a 12% lower expected need.
- Patients who have very complex needs for specialized care (ie oncologist for cancer, endocrinologists for diabetes) might not have higher than average needs for PRIMARY care and therefore may not contribute to a higher SAMI score.
- Among CHCs, where SAMI scores have been reported for several years, some patient populations have scores of nearly 3.0 (very high) with scores of 1.4 considered to be low.
- The range of SAMI scores among FHTs contributing data to D2D 2.0 was 0.81 to 1.23 with a provincial range of 0.95 to 1.84 (depending on the type of primary care model).
- Primary care documentation can theoretically affect SAMI score. If providers routinely use the same, non-specific code for visits by patients for different issues (e.g. “visit for medication renewal” instead of a more specific diagnosis-related code) the SAMI score could theoretically under-estimate the needs for primary care. However, the scoring system has been validated in both Ontario and Manitoba and shown to be very stable, even with the current state of primary care documentation.
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