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| Urgent surgery: a forgotten wait time? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 10 2013, 09:39 AM (1,329 Views) | |
| colo_crawdad | Dec 10 2013, 10:17 PM Post #11 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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I know of several hospitaols in small towns in Kansas that have no dedicated ER Personnel. So? |
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| Berton | Dec 11 2013, 02:44 AM Post #12 |
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An ignored and fragmented patient population There are many conditions that require urgent surgery, but disorders such as hip fracture, acute cholecystitis (acute gall bladder inflammation) and appendicitis are particularly common. Time is of the essence in treating patients who require urgent surgery. Delaying an urgent surgery for lengthy periods of time, in some cases, increases complications and may even lead to death. For example, an inflamed appendix, untreated, may rupture, spreading infection throughout the abdominal cavity. There is a growing body of research suggesting that patients with urgent surgical needs are waiting too long for surgery. From the time that they present to an emergency department to being booked in for surgery, they can experience many periods of prolonged waits. The diagram below, from a study led by surgeons at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, shows the many different steps in the typical journey of an urgent surgical patient. It details the waiting periods from the emergency department waiting room to operating room. (Click on the image for an enlarged view.) ![]() Patients with urgent surgical needs are described by the Canadian Association of General Surgeons as a “sometimes ignored and fragmented patient population”. These patients cross many different clinical areas and hospital spaces, in comparison to patients booked into elective surgery. Surgical services in larger hospitals are often organized by specialty, with operating rooms dedicated towards specific areas, such as cancer and orthopaedics. These are generally scheduled surgeries, with patients having a pre-surgery consult and care. Urgent surgeries have traditionally been slotted into the existing surgical schedule, wherever they might fit, which can include after hours or else bumping an existing surgery booking. Typically each surgical division and surgeon will be allotted a certain ‘block’ of operating time for their elective surgery. Surgeons use this time to manage patients requiring surgery who have been referred to them. If their ‘elective time’ is continually utilized by ‘urgent surgery cases’, their elective wait lists will grow, ultimately affecting the timeliness and quality of their services. As there has been increasing attention focused on improving elective surgery wait-times, hospitals and surgeons tend to fiercely protect ‘elective surgical blocks’. In some cases, this may result in urgent cases being delayed until later in the day, when surgeons have completed their elective list of surgeries for the day. |
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| Deleted User | Dec 11 2013, 09:08 AM Post #13 |
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It often depends on whether a patient walks in by themselves or arrive in an ambulance. I cannot speak for Toronto but the 2 times my parents have gone to emergency they have been dealt with in a timely prompt manner. I might add the the one time I was in a US emergency hospital in Yuma, choking on a piece of chicken caught in my throat, I waited 45 minutes and they demanaded my credit card before i could even sit down. |
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| Berton | Dec 11 2013, 09:54 AM Post #14 |
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Urgent surgery wait times are not being measured Measuring surgical wait times is well established across Canada. In 2004, provinces agreed to a 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care, with a major focus on wait times. This plan identified five priority areas for wait time reductions, elective surgeries in cancer care, cardiac care, diagnostic imaging, hip and knee joint replacement and cataract surgery. The plan set benchmarks for wait times in these areas, and involved a substantial amount of new funding – $1.7 billion in Ontario – to increase the number of these procedures, and a commitment to publicly measure and report on wait times. In Ontario, publicly reporting on wait times for surgery has expanded beyond the five priority areas to a broad range of elective surgery and diagnostic procedures. However, conspicuously omitted from this list are urgent surgeries, such as the one required by Michael. There are gaps in our knowledge about how long patients are waiting across Canada for urgent surgery. “We’ve made an assumption that patients with urgent needs are protected from waits, queues and backlogs” says Chris Simpson, cardiologist and incoming Canadian Medical Association President. However, evidence suggests that this assumption may not always hold true. ------------ So there could be wait times but no one knows. Hummm..... |
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| colo_crawdad | Dec 11 2013, 10:31 AM Post #15 |
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Some of tlhis sounds like the Housten, Txas lady who was given a blanket and told to go to the parking lot and wait for an emergency apendectomy. |
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| Berton | Dec 11 2013, 10:36 AM Post #16 |
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But we have been told that there are no wait times for urgent surgery in Canada. |
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| ImaHeadaU | Dec 11 2013, 10:43 AM Post #17 |
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http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/swt/# |
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| Berton | Dec 11 2013, 10:50 AM Post #18 |
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"This new website is designed to offer you more information about wait times for elective surgical procedures in British Columbia for adult and pediatric patients." Still no answer. |
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| ImaHeadaU | Dec 11 2013, 01:26 PM Post #19 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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What was the question? |
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| campingken | Dec 12 2013, 12:54 AM Post #20 |
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Berton's question is "why is it that Canadians pay less for health insurance than Americans yet they are healthier than Americans?" |
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10:13 PM Jul 11
