ArticleHepatology communications2026
Reduced wait times for hepatology referrals in a prospective quality improvement initiative.
Article in Hepatology communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWaitlist volumes for hepatology referrals in Calgary, Alberta, have increased with population growth and rising chronic liver disease [alcohol-related, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and cirrhosis complications]. Prolonged waits threaten timely surveillance, diagnosis, and treatment. We conducted a QI (quality improvement) project in the Calgary Liver Unit at the University of Calgary Medical Clinic (UCMC), a tertiary clinic using a central access and triage (CAT) system serving ~2 million residents.
methodsOur aim was to cut the median wait for routine referrals from 78.4 to 39 weeks (50%) between October 2023 and August 2025. Six Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles targeted referral coding (ICD-10 groupings), a dedicated HBV clinic, clearer triage acuity criteria, standardized waitlist management, redirecting benign liver neoplasms to primary care with guidance, and recruiting 2 additional hepatologists to expand capacity. The primary outcome was median routine wait time; secondary outcomes included urgent and emergent wait times and total waitlist size. Net waitlist accrual (accepted referrals minus new patients seen per month) tracked the flow. Data from CAT and scheduling systems were analyzed using statistical process control (SPC) charts.
resultsBy August 2025, the median routine wait fell to 8.4 weeks, the urgent wait fell from 28.3 to 6.6 weeks, and the emergent wait remained near the 2-week target (2.4 to ~2.7 weeks). The waitlist decreased from 1426 to 158 patients, and net accrual shifted from persistently positive to sustained negative values, reflecting backlog reduction. Routine-wait SPC charts showed special-cause variation and a sustained performance shift after key interventions.
conclusionThis multi-component, data-driven strategy within a CAT model improved access for routine referrals while protecting timely care for higher-acuity patients and may translate to other subspecialty clinics facing similar constraints.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.