Patients can compare wait times online
New tool looks at surgical wait times at hospitals across Ontario; includes cancer to eye operations
WATERLOO REGION — A new online tool lets patients find and compare wait times for surgeries at hospitals across the province.
“I think it’s a great idea. I think patients should always have the option of picking the shortest wait,” said Robinne Hauck, surgical program director at Grand River Hospital.
“You should be able to have some choice.”
Patients can easily look up the length of time between a referral to the first appointment with a specialist or surgeon, as well as the time between the decision to have a surgery or procedure and when it is performed.
Wait times are available for each hospital, giving patients a better understanding of what to expect and make informed choices including talking to the referring doctor about options to reduce the wait time.
For Waterloo Region, the new tool highlights the long wait for orthopedic surgery, in particular hip and knee replacements. Work is already underway to shorten that wait.
“Our big focus now is on orthopedics,” Hauck said. “We need to get on top of it.” Only 15 per cent of people who needed a knee replacement were treated within the target time in Kitchener, compared to 69 per cent in Cambridge. For hip replacement, only 22 per cent were treated within the target time and 83 per cent in Cambridge.
Patients with emergency conditions are treated immediately, and not included in wait time data.
“I feel like we’re responsible to improve those wait times because we feel we can provide better care,” Hauck said. “But we only own some of this.”
She said that while the hospital is bound by wait targets, surgeon’s offices are not. Currently in the region, patients are referred to a specific surgeon by their family doctor and each office independently manages cases.
Hauck said the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network is working on those “glitches” in the system that are contributing to the long waits by developing a central intake model, which is expected to be implemented over the next few months.
“We see some significant change coming,” Hauck said. “I think central intake has a lot of benefit for patients.”
Patients will still have a choice about their surgeon, she said, but with the understanding the wait time may be longer.
In June, the health network acknowledged that wait times for hip and knee replacements are long in the region when Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath held a campaign-style news conference outside Grand River decrying what she called a “crisis in our hospital system” that’s causing longer waits and overcrowded hospitals.
A May report by the network found only 39 per cent of residents receive their hip or knee replacement within the provincial target, and current results rank this area last in Ontario.
While this region is lagging behind for orthopedic surgeries, for most other surgeries it is doing very well, Hauck said. “Our cancer cases are all on target.” Included in the new tool — announced Thursday in Toronto by Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Dr. Eric Hoskins — are wait times for pediatric surgeries, cancer surgeries, cardiac surgeries and procedures, eye surgeries including cataract, orthopedic surgeries and other surgeries and procedures.