Research has shown that a strong primary healthcare system results in better health outcomes and lower costs (Starfield 1994). A key characteristic of a strong primary healthcare system is access to care. Two elements of a strong healthcare system are accessibility and short wait times for service. In Canada, a shortage of primary healthcare providers is the biggest obstacle to reducing wait ti...

BACKGROUND Understanding factors relating to the perception of wait time by patients is key to improving the patient experience. METHODS We surveyed 122 breast and 90 prostate cancer patients presenting at clinics or listed on the cancer registry in Newfoundland and Labrador and reviewed their charts. We compared the wait time (first visit to diagnosis) and the wait-related satisfaction for b...

Long wait times for specialist consultation affect patient care and health outcomes adversely. The wait-time continuum has various components, one of which is the wait time from referral request by a family physician to specialist appointment. The Committee on Utilization, Review, and Education (CURE), comprising a group of family physicians from the Department of Family Medicine at St Joseph’s...

BACKGROUND Cataract surgery is the most common operative procedure performed in Canada, and how patients are affected by wait times for this surgery has important clinical, public health and health policy considerations. We conducted a systematic review to understand the relation between wait time for cataract surgery and patient outcomes and the variables that modify this relation. METHODS W...

in this paper the real time operation of an automatic teller machine (atm) is analyzed using atimed petri net (tpn) model. in the modeling, the probability of arrivals, the speed andattentiveness of customers (clients) are taken to account. different parameters are based onthe statistical data. the model is simulated for 24 hours. the diagrams of number ofsucceeded customers, failed references ...

BACKGROUND In addition to possibly prolonged suffering and anxiety, extended waits for children's surgery beyond critical developmental periods has potential for lifelong impact. The goal of this study was to determine the duration of waits for surgery for children and youth at Canadian paediatric academic health sciences centres using clinically-derived access targets (i.e., the maximum accept...

BACKGROUND The demand for total hip and total knee arthroplasties is increasing as are the waiting times for these procedures. Because of the differences between rural and urban areas in terms of the provision of arthroplasty services and between the 2 patient groups, patient perspectives of waiting times may also be different. METHODS To compare waiting times for initial orthopedic consultat...

BACKGROUND In recent years, there has been considerable concern regarding wait times for Canadian health care, which led the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) to develop specific wait time targets. OBJECTIVES To quantify wait times for endoscopic procedures at a tertiary care centre and correlate these with clinical presentation, impact on quality of life (QOL) and final diagnosi...

Network-centric operations, in which multiple human and computer-based agents are linked in order to leverage information superiority, will bring increases in available information sources, volume of information and operational tempo, all of which will place higher cognitive demands on operators. This is an especially critical problem for operators who will be attempting to control multiple veh...

OBJECTIVE Increased wait times for total joint arthroplasty (TJA) are a concern nationally and provincially. Additionally, the number of patients requiring revision of their initial TJA is increasing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the wait times and impact of waiting for revision TJA. METHODS We followed 127 revision hip arthroplasty patients (mean age 68 y) prospectively while th...