Table 4:

Characteristics of wait-time data for elective surgery presented on wait-time reporting websites in Canadian provinces and territories

Characteristic	BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NL	NS	NB	PE	TRS
Data presented by procedure	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓*	✓	✓	✓
Data presented by surgeon	✓	✓	✓					✓
Data presented by hospital or institution	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓†	✓	✓
Data presented by location (e.g., health authority, zone, community)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓‡	✓
Data presented by time period (e.g., month, year)		✓		✓			✓§	✓
Information included	No. of cases waiting No. of cases completed 50th (median) and 90th percentile wait times	25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile wait times Average (mean) wait time No. of procedures completed	No. of nonemergent cases completed Time frame within which 50% and 90% of patients received surgery (wk) Cases waiting Percentage of patients waiting > 3 months Specialist will or will not see patient using video conferencing	No. of surgeries performed/month Median wait times by most recent 2 fiscal years to date	Percentage of patients seen within target time (all patients combined) For each priority level: patients who should be seen within a target time of X days waited on average X days, percentage of patients seen within target time Can compare average days waited across various hospitals	For patients operated on: no. of patients, percentage operated on within 3 and 6 or more months, and average waiting time For patients waiting: no. of patients waiting, no. of patients waiting 6 months or more	WH website Median wait time Percentage of patients for whom benchmark was met Total no. of procedures performed HCS website No. of procedures completed Time frame within which 50% and 90% of procedures were completed Percentage of procedures performed within benchmark	Maximum time 90% and 50% of patients waited Shortest wait time Wait-time trends	Time frame within which 50% and 90% of procedures were completed Trend information No. of procedures completed	Time frame within which 90% of patients were treated (d)
Data source	Surgical Patient Registry Data not recorded by the Surgical Patient Registry are sent to the MOH by other organizations	MOH receives data from hospitals and diagnostic clinics These institutions gather information from physicians and specialists	Surgical Patient Registry with the exception of hip fracture repair (data come from CIHI)	Hospitals and other facilities gather wait-time data from physician and operating room booking systems RHAs check the data and send it to Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living’s Health System Innovation Branch	Wait Time Information System (WTIS)	Information System for Managing Access Mechanisms to Specialized Services (SIMASS)	WH website Hospitals and other facilities get data from physicians and operating rooms or booking systems Data are verified by each RHA and submitted to the Department of Health and Community Services HCS website RHAs report wait-time data to the Department of Health and Community Services	Patient Access Registry Nova Scotia (PAR NS)	Provincial Surgical Access Registry	NR
Update frequency	Bimonthly	Monthly	Real time	NR	Monthly	Monthly	Monthly or quarterly or both	Quarterly	Quarterly	NR

Note: AB = Alberta, BC = British Columbia, CIHI = Canadian Institute for Health Information, HCS = Health and Community Services, MB = Manitoba, MOH = ministry of health, NB = New Brunswick, NL = Newfoundland and Labrador, NR = not reported, NS = Nova Scotia, ON = Ontario, PE = Prince Edward Island, QC = Quebec, RHA = regional health authority, SK = Saskatchewan, TRS = territories (i.e., Northwest Territories, Yukon & Nunavut), WH = Western Health.

^*WH and HCS websites.

^†WH website only.

^‡HCS website only.

^§Yearly reports are posted on the HCS website.