ArticleHealthcare policy = Politiques de sante2012
What are wait times to see a specialist? an analysis of 26,942 referrals in southwestern Ontario.
Article in Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- Emergency Department Visits, Hospital Admissions, and Wait Times for Patients With Urologic Conditions.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Increased access to pediatric specialist healthcare using eConsult: A retrospective observational cohort and case-control study.Paediatrics & child health · 2025Article
- Physician-to-Physician eConsultations to Ophthalmologists at an Academic Medical Center.Translational vision science & technology · 2024Article
- Factors Affecting Waiting Time of Patients Referred to Specialty Clinics from a Family Medicine Clinic in a Tertiary Government Hospital: A Retrospective Chart Review.Acta medica Philippina · 2024Article
- Assessing Quality of Referrals to a Community-Based Chronic Pain Clinic.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2024Article
- Motives behind low-acuity geriatric emergency medicine attenders: a picture from free healthcare system.Irish journal of medical science · 2023Article
- Demographic trends of patients undergoing ophthalmic surgery in Ontario, Canada: a population-based study.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2023Article
- Doctor for Every Citizen: Telehealth Visits at Dubai Health Authority during COVID-19 Pandemic in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Waiting times for prostate cancer: A review.Journal of public health research · 2020Article
- How long are Canadians waiting to access specialty care? Retrospective study from a primary care perspective.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2020Article
- Regional Wait Times for Patients With Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer in Southwestern Ontario.Plastic surgery (Oakville, Ont.) · 2020Article
- Supporting the spread and scale-up of electronic consultation across Canada: cross-sectional analysis.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Factors associated with waiting times for persons with rheumatic conditions in multidisciplinary pain treatment facilities.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Teleneurology and mobile technologies: the future of neurological care.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2018Review
- Understanding Patient Referral Wait Times for Specialty Care in Ontario: A Retrospective Chart Audit.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2018Article
- Primary care physician referral patterns in Ontario, Canada: a descriptive analysis of self-reported referral data.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Surgical assessment: measuring unobserved health.BMC surgery · 2015Observational
- Identifying new referrals from FPs using EMRs.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Article
- Waiting for a specialist consultation for a new condition in Ontario: impacts on patients' lives.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2014Article
- Waiting for a consultation: Sorry, but the doctor cannot see you.Canadian journal of gastroenterology = Journal canadien de gastroenterologie · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundReducing wait times is a key goal of Canadian health planners and policy makers. Using data from the EMRs of 23 family physicians across southwestern Ontario, we present data on wait times to see a specialist, and evaluate these data for equity.
methodsCross-sectional analysis of EMR database of 29,303 patients and 544,398 encounters from October 2005 to July 2010. Wait time was calculated as the difference between the specialist appointment date and the family physician's referral date. Multilevel regression analysis was used to assess equity in waiting times.
resultsThe median wait was 53 days, with female patients having a slightly longer wait than males (55 vs. 51 days), and younger patients (median = 45 days) having the shortest wait. Differences were noted among practices, with a range of 42-63 days. The longest waits were for neurosurgery (median = 103 days) and the shortest for paediatricians (median = 28 days). There was no correlation between wait times and income, but significant associations were noted for patient age, sex and referral urgency.
interpretationThis is the first study to present data on actual wait times for a broad array of specialists over a five-year period. There is variation among specialties and by practice, and further research is needed to understand reasons for these. From a policy perspective, there is equity in wait times in southwestern Ontario, as waits are not correlated with SES. Future work should model the patient-, physician- and contextual-level factors that determine specialist wait times.
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Identifiers
23968605PMC3430156What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.