Wait Times Flashcards
What are wait times?
- when the demand for treatment exceeds the supply, either due to lack of capacity or inefficient use of existing capacity
When are wait times a problem?
- In a life of death situation
- Might jeopardize health
What causes wait times?
- Too many people trying to access the same service at the same time
- Demand for care exceeds the supply we have
(Ie. Limited specialists in a certian field) - Inappropriate care (ie. Going to the ER instead of family doctor)
- Disorganization
2 Forms of Waiting
1) Referral from doctor to specialist
2) Time from decision to surgery
Ontario’s Wait Time Strategy
- Provides funding to hospitals to provide additional wait list surgeries, MRIs, and CTs
- As a condition of funding, hospitals must supply and verify their wait times information to the ‘Wait Times Information System (if they do not report it, they do not receive money/ funding)
Why should wait times be reported?
- Measures the problem
- Tracks the problem over time
- Enhances accountability for addressing the problem
- Redirects patients to shorter wait lists via patient choice
What are benchmarks?
- Targets representing the maximum amount of time a patient should wait, beyond which evidence shows adverse health effects will likely occur
- The Ontario wait time
strategy provides
benchmarks
- The Ontario wait time
Priority level for patient conditions
1) Immediate - emergency surgery required
- patients is seen within 24 hours of referral
2) Patients diagnosed with highly aggressive malignancies
- patients is seen within 10 days of referral
3) Patients with know or suspected invasive cancer that do not meet the criteria of priority 2 or 4
- patients is seen within 21 days of referral
4) Patients diagnosed with malignancies
- patients is seen within 35 days of referral
What are alternative policy solutions?
- Eliminate inappropriate tests and treatments
(not giving antibiotics for viral infections) - Recruit/increase pay for key human resources
- Increase after-hours care
- Pay-for-performance (encourage employees to hit performance goals by offering monetary incentives)
- Activity-based funding
(instead of giving a lot of money to hospitals, provincials could say that 70% of the money must be used toward something specific) - Integrated funding models
- Establish centralized intake of patients (root referrals to a central intake (hospital) , not to a specific physician)
- Incentivize (ie. Pay healthcare workers more money to attract more people into the profession)
- Fund more training
(Increase spots in curriculum [Nursing program]) - Rank urgency of patient situations (send patients to other regions where they can be treated faster)
What is the “Your Health Act”?
- Ontario passed the law: Your health act
- This tried to address wait times
- We do not know the impact yet bc it is a new policy
- Provides a framework to expand the types of surgeries and procedures being done
- Shift surgeries outside of the hospitals and into the community (ie. private clinics)
- Can be covered by OHIP
Why would it be a problem if people could go to Quebec for $750 to get an MRI, instead of waiting 6 weeks to get an MRI in Ottawa?
- By allowing something like thus, you undermine accessibility - key to the Canada health act
What common wealth country has longest wait times?
Canada
Doug fords plan to cut wait times
- move towards private sector - move low risk surgeries and procedures to private clinics, that will still be paid by Ontario Health Insurance plan
Controversy with moving toward private clinics
- health care unions have warned government not too
- people are worried it will not actually be covered by insurance
- clinics may use more expensive equipment than hospitals, or offer special perks that end up being paid out of pocket
ex; patient putting in an eye lense - private clinic may offer a more advanced one, but would have to be paid out of pocket - Pushing/encouraging people to spend money? Deception by clinic practitioners?
- Might make patient do more diagnostic tests/measurements that are unnecessary
- Ohip can pay private clinics differently - slightly more than hospitals ? Inequity
- Surgeries do not run overnight/ evening - critics say give them more money to run overnight, no need for private clinics
