Marketwatch - Measuring and reducing waiting times: A cross-national comparison of strategies

Health Affairs

Volumn 26, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 1078-1087

  Willcox, Sharon ^a   Seddon, Mary ^b,c   Dunn, Stephen ^d   Edwards, Rhiannon Tudor ^e   Pearse, Jim ^f   Tu, Jack V ^g  

^a Health Policy Solutions   (Australia)

^b Division of Medicine Emergency and Integrated Care

^c UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

^d Department of Health ^*  (United Kingdom)

^e BANGOR UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^f UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG   (Australia)

^g UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; AUSTRALIA; CANADA; COMPARATIVE STUDY; ECONOMICS; HEALTH CARE DELIVERY; HEALTH CARE PLANNING; HEALTH SERVICE; HOSPITAL ADMISSION; HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT; HUMAN; INSURANCE; MANAGEMENT; NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE; NEW ZEALAND; PUBLIC HEALTH; STANDARD; STATISTICS; SURGERY; UNITED KINGDOM; UTILIZATION REVIEW;

AUSTRALIA; CANADA; ENGLAND; HEALTH PRIORITIES; HEALTH SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY; HEALTH SERVICES NEEDS AND DEMAND; HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION; HUMANS; MANAGEMENT AUDIT; NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAMS; NEW ZEALAND; STATE MEDICINE; SURGICAL PROCEDURES, OPERATIVE; UNIVERSAL COVERAGE; WAITING LISTS; WALES;

EID: 34548321045     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: 02782715     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.4.1078     Document Type: Review

References (25)

1. J. Hurst and L. Siciliani, "Tackling Excessive Waiting Times for Elective Surgery: A Comparison of Policies in Twelve OECD Countries," OECD Health Working Papers, no. 6 (Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2003).
2. See, for example, S. Derrett, C. Paul, and J.M. Morris, "Waiting for Elective Surgery: Effects on Health-Related Quality of Life," International Journal for Quality in Health Care 11, no. 1 (1999): 47-57.
3. S.R. Collins et al., Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem (New York: Commonwealth Fund, 2006).
4. The ten-year plan had its genesis in the Canadian First Ministers Accord on Health Care, agreed to in 2000.
5. N. Mays, Use of Targets to Improve Health System Performance: English NHS Experience and Implications for New Zealand, July 2006, http://www.treasury.govt.nz/workingpapers/2006/wp06-06.asp (accessed 5 April 2007).
6. National Audit Office Wales, NHS Waiting Times in Wales, Volume 1: The Scale of the Problem, Report by the National Audit Office Wales on behalf of the Auditor General for Wales, January 2005, http://www.wao.gov.uk/assets/ englishdocuments/NHS_Waiting_Times_Vol_1_agw_2005.pdf (accessed 7 April 2007).
7. National Audit Office Wales, NHS Waiting Times in Wales, Volume 2: Tackling the Problem, January 2005, http://www.wao.gov.uk/assets/ englishdocuments/NHS_Waiting_Times_Vol_2_agw_2005.pdf (accessed 7 April 2007).
8. New Zealand Ministry of Health, "About Elective Services," http://www.electiveservices.govt.nz (accessed 27 January 2007).
9. Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing, The State of our Public Hospitals, June 2006 Report (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2006).
10. The Victoria state government publishes information quarterly on waiting times for elective surgery by individual hospitals and specialities via its public hospital performance Web site, http://www.health.vic.gov.au/ yourhospitals.
11. D.C. Hadorn and A.C. Holmes, "The New Zealand Priority Criteria Project, Part 1: Overview," British Medical Journal 314, no. 7074 (1997): 131-134.
12. E.R. Dennett and B.R. Parry, "Generic Surgical Priority Criteria Scoring System: The Clinical Reality," New Zealand Medical Journal 111, no. 1065 (1998): 163-166.
13. M.E. Seddon et al., "Waiting Times and Prioritization for Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery in New Zealand," Heart 81, no. 6 (1999): 586-592.
14. S. Derrett et al., "Evaluation of Explicit Prioritisation for Elective Surgery: A Prospective Study," Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 7, no. 1, Supp. (2002): S14-S22.
15. Information on the Western Canada Waiting List Project is available at its Web site: http://www.wcwl.org.
16. Canadian Institute for Health Information, Waiting for Health Care in Canada: What We Know and What We Don't Know (Ottawa: CIHI, 2006).
17. For information on Ontario waiting times, see Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, "Ontario Wait Times," 15 March 2007, http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/wait_times/wait_mn.html (accessed 7 April 2007). For information on access to care in Ontario, see J.V. Tu et al., eds., Access to Health Services in Ontario: ICES Atlas (Toronto: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, 2005).
18. Information on the English "Choose and Book" system is at http://www.chooseandbook.nhs.uk.
19. See National Audit Office Wales, NHS Waiting Times in Wales, Volume 2: Tackling the Problem.
20. L. Siciliani and J. Hurst, Explaining Waiting Time Variations for Elective Surgery across OECD Countries, OECD Economic Studies no. 38 (Paris: OECD, 2004).
21. See National Audit Office Wales, NHS Waiting Times in Wales, Volume 1: The Scale of the Problem.
22. M. Johnston, "Hospitals Cull Waiting Lists by Thousands," New Zealand Herald, 29 January 2007.
23. These national data mask major differences in performance at the state or provincial level. See, for example, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, "How Comparable Are the Provinces' Waiting Times Data?" Links 9, no. 2 (2006): 4.
24. For example, the Commonwealth Fund International Health Survey for 2001 found that the proportions of people needing elective surgery in the past twelve months who waited more than four months was higher in Australia (23 percent), Canada (27 percent), New Zealand (26 percent), and the United Kingdom (38 percent), whereas in the United States, only 5 percent waited more than four months. C. Schoen et al., Comparison of Health Care System Views and Experiences in Five Nations, Issue Brief no. 542 (New York: Commonwealth Fund, May 2002).
25. S.J. Duckett, "Private Care and Public Waiting," Australian Health Review 29, no. 1 (2005): 87-93.