The Open Database of Healthcare Facilities

The Open Database of Healthcare Facilities (ODHF) is a collection of open data containing the names, types, and locations of healthcare facilities across Canada. It is released under the Open Government Licence – Canada and is a component of the Linkable Open Data Environment.

The ODHF consists of data provided by federal, provincial and territorial, and municipal governments, as well as regional health authorities. This database aims to offer enhanced access to a harmonized listing of healthcare facilities across Canada as open data.

Data sources and methodology

Source data for the ODHF were provided under open data licences or obtained directly from sources upon request. Details of the sources used are available in the ODHF metadata.

Each dataset was harmonized, including by adopting a common table schema, removing duplicate records, conflating features to a province or territory and census subdivision, classifying features by type, and cleaning datasets when required.

The type classification for ODHF version 2.0 includes nine unique feature types;

• ambulatory health care services: a collection of health care services that are commonly provided by practitioners as outpatient services and that do not fall into one of the other defined ODHF type classifications;
• clinic: locations that include walk-in clinics, doctors’ offices, and other medical clinics;
• diagnostic services: locations that provide medical testing, laboratory and imagery services;
• health centre: health care facilities that offer a variety of health care services to their local community;
• hospital: medical hubs that provide a wide range of medical services and treatments; typically, the word hospital is included in the feature name or description;
• nursing and residential care facilities: locations offering long term residential care services or nursing homes;
• mental health: locations offering psychological or mental health services;
• pharmacy: locations offering pharmaceutical services;
• miscellaneous: facilities that do not fall into any of the above categories, including emergency services, health units, hospital heli pads, and public health offices.

The ODHF coverage is not exhaustive, and it may not contain all facilities in scope for the current version. While efforts have been made to minimize these issues, facility type classification and geolocation errors are possible. The ODHF draws from multiple sources, which have varying release dates by providers.

This current version of the database (version 2.0) contains approximately 22,000 records. Data were collected by accessing sources between 2025 and 2026.

The variables included in the ODHF are as follows:

• id: a unique identifier for the record;
• source_id: the identifier provided by the source;
• source_class: the class or type of feature defined by the source;
• type: the class or type of feature defined by Statistics Canada;
• provider: the name of the provider of the source data;
• name: the name of the feature;
• address: the physical address of the feature;
• prov_terr: the two-character code representing the Canadian province or territory the feature is associated with;
• dguid: the 16-character code representing the dissemination geography unique identifier the feature is associated with;
• csdname: the 2021 census subdivision name;
• emergency_services: an indication of whether emergency services are provided at the location;
• status: the status of the feature, if provided;
• health_authority: the name of the health authority associated with the facility;
• ownership: the name of the owner of the facility;
• operator: the name of the operator of the facility;
• num_beds: the number of beds available at the facility;
• geometry: the geometry of the feature.

For more information on how the addresses and variables were compiled, see the metadata that accompany the ODHF.

Changes from version v1.1 of the Open Database of Healthcare Facilities

Extensive changes have occurred between the ODHF version 2.0 and its predecessor, ODHF version 1.1.

• Spatial coverage increased across the country, from about 7,000 features to about 22,000.
• Data are now published in multiple open spatial file formats.
• Attribute data were expanded beyond name, type, and geometry. Now information on the health authority, and ownership is included with the dataset, and the address information was condensed to a single field.
• Feature types increased from the original three to nine unique types.

Downloading the Open Database of Health Care Facilities

The ODHF is provided in multiple compressed formats for easier downloading, including GeoPackage, GeoParquet, and GeoJSON.

• ODHF v2 (GeoPackage)
• ODHF v2 (GeoParquet)
• ODHF v2 (GeoJSON)