Question

Health care in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded health care system, which is mostly free at the point of use and has most services provided by private entities. Health Canada, a federal department, publishes a series of surveys of the health care system in Canada based on Canadians' first-hand experiences of the health care system. Although life-threatening cases are dealt with immediately, some services needed are non-urgent and patients are seen at the next-available appointment in their local chosen facility.

The median wait time in Canada to see a special physician is a little over four weeks with 89.5% waiting fewer than 90 days.

The median wait time for diagnostic services such as MRI and CAT scans is two weeks with 86.4% waiting fewer than 90 days.

The median wait time for surgery is four weeks with 82.2% waiting fewer than 90 days.

Dr. Brian Day was once quoted as saying "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two-to-three years." Based on waiting line theory, what are your suggestions to improve the health care service in Canada?

Answer 1

In a funded health care system like Canada, it is obvious that the situation will always be such that the patients are more and the wait time exists. But having an effective wait time needs strategies and proper management. Best practices are needed to be taken up in health care to enhance efficiency. A support from government leaders and cooperative clinical leadership will help following these best practices. The information technology infrastructure needs to be effective for managing the centralised wait list data. Forming benchmarks and evaluating the performance against those benchmarks will help in reducing wait times. Identifying individual problems and the wait time for each individual and reasons for it will help to address these problems efficiently.

Also, the emergency and need of the treatment should be well analyzed. What the illness is, how much treatment and care it needs and what alternatives can be taken to deal with it will help in managing the large volume of patients in the wait line for funded healthcare systems. The time on treatment for each process should be evaluated and the demand of the treatment should be forecasted to efficiently manage the two in an ongoing process. Hence the management of demand and supply system can help in effectively managing the wait line theory for the health care systems in Canada.