Surgery waitlists mean different things to different people, from hospital workers and health departments to patients and members of the community. It’s one of those issues that impacts everyone… and everyone has a different perspective on it.

That’s because managing waitlists (and hospital demand in general) is an important job that can make a real difference in hospitals and communities.

That said, it always helps to have a strong ‘why’ behind what you’re doing. Especially since working towards optimal surgery wait times is an ongoing task for hospital operational and planning teams. It’s something that you might get on top of, but then an unexpected event or change occurs and needs revisiting again. 

To help make the work more meaningful, we’ve summarised the two main impacts of improving surgery waitlists, starting with hospitals themselves.

Better Hospital Performance — Clinical and Administrative

As a surgeon or clinician, good surgery waitlist management contributes to providing the best clinical outcomes for patients and positively impacting the lives of your patients. It means being able to make the most of their valuable (and very specialised) time to treat the patients who need their skills the most.

For heads of units, waitlist numbers can be a sign that processes are running smoothly, or that something needs fixing, whether it’s new training, more resources, or a better system. They’ll likely need to regularly report on surgical waitlist data — and they may also be responsible for ensuring the team is consistently meeting the clinically recommended wait times.

For booking officers, scheduled care leads, and elective surgery coordinators, surgical waitlist management forms a major part of their roles. Figuring out how to make the most of valuable resources against a dynamic waitlist is a constant challenge.

Meanwhile, hospital administrators or senior members of the management team are held accountable for hospital performance. Because surgery wait times are a broadly recognised performance metric that indicates if hospitals are managing the demand in time, they’ll review this data regularly. If there are patients who are not being seen in time, administrators and managers will work with department managers to implement strategies and resources to better plan for elective surgery and improve waitlists.

Many other roles within hospitals are also indirectly impacted by surgical waitlists — potentially without even realising it. That’s because good waitlist management minimises disruption to patient flow throughout the entire hospital, including inpatients, outpatients, and ED.
 

Better Patient Experiences and Outcomes

Strong and reliable hospital performance is great, but the real point of performance metrics is to give confidence to the community that hospitals are providing good care. And if they’re not performing well, to encourage the government to support them to do better. That’s because it’s the patient outcomes themselves behind the performance metrics that matter. So, consider how patients might be impacted by surgery wait times.

Let’s look at the example of someone who is waiting for a hip replacement surgery. While they’re waiting months (or even years), they could be impacted by:

• Ongoing and debilitating pain, which could cause difficulty sleeping
• Mobility challenges, which may lead to falls
• Weight gain from the inability to exercise that can lead to lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes
• Reliance on opioids, which could lead to addiction

A patient that isn’t seen in time could experience worse health outcomes that have a big impact on their quality of life, their livelihood, and their relationships. 

If a hospital is able to keep their elective surgery waitlists in control and see patients within recommended times, it’s fair to say that more people would experience less pain and discomfort, simpler surgeries, and faster recoveries.

And the impact of surgery wait times goes beyond individual patients, reaching into families, workplaces, and the whole community. Because if you never get to the people on your waitlist (even if they’re not considered urgent), cumulatively it can have consequences to the community. 

Learn More About Surgical Waitlist Management

Feeling motivated? Good — because the issue of long surgical waits is here to stay for the foreseeable future. You’ll likely need to explore additional strategies in order to manage ever-growing demand for surgical procedures and get on top of the backlogs created by the last two years of pandemic measures.

Want to learn more? Check out our in-depth guide on surgical fundamentals [insert hyperlink when ready], including details on waitlist management challenges and strategies like demand vs capacity tracking, waitlist audits, theatre utilisation, and more.