Percentage-cancer-surgeries-completed-within-target

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Percentage of cancer surgeries completed within target time by priority level

Alternate Name

Percentage of cancer surgeries completed within target time by priority level

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This indicator measures the percentage of patients who met the access targets from when a patient and surgeon decide to proceed with cancer surgery until when the actual procedure is completed. A higher percentage is better.

Indicator Status

Active

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public reporting

Dimension

Timely

Type

Process

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Percentage

Calculation Methods

The percentage is calculated as: numerator divided by the denominator times 100

Numerator including inclusion/exclusion

Number of patients whose cancer surgery wait times is within the access targets.

The wait time is calculated for each patient who received treatment within the most current time period, for a particular service area and hospital.

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

All cancer surgeries meeting the inclusion/exclusion criteria below.

Inclusions:

All closed wait list entries with cancer procedure dates within date range.
Patients that are 18 years and older on the day the procedure was completed.
Treatment Cancer procedures only. Procedures classified as "NA" are currently included.

Exclusions:

Diagnostic, Palliative and Reconstructive cancer procedures.
Procedures on Skin - Carcinoma, Skin-Melanoma, and Lymphomas.
Procedures no longer required.
Procedures assigned as Priority 1 level.
Wait list entries identified by hospitals as data entry errors.
Diagnostic imaging cases classified as specified date procedures (SDP) or timed procedures. SDP cases are excluded from MRI and CT wait time information as of January 1, 2008.

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- detailed

None

Data Source

Wait Time Information System (WTIS)

Data provided to HQO by

Cancer Care Ontario (CCO)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Region, Time

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

The intent of the data collection is to have the wait time for a patient undergoing an operation where cancer is a real possibility. In some cases, it is only after surgery that a negative result is known. Some reported wait time data for cancer surgery includes data for surgeries where there are benign or non Non-cancerous tumours.The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is working with the surgical community to have more accurate reporting of surgical treatment data involving “intentional” and “patient unavailable” wait times either by: Subtracting the "patient unavailable dates" from the overall wait time. Entering the “decision to treat date” as the date when the patient is first recovered from treatment. For detailed limitations, see: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/waittimes/surgery/data.aspx#5 Many cancer surgery procedures are the same as the procedures for benign (non-cancerous) conditions, and the same doctors perform both cancer surgery and non-cancer surgery. As a result, almost every hospital in Ontario performs at least a few cancer surgeries every year. However, the hospitals with smaller numbers of cancer procedures may not have a formal cancer program or specialize in cancer surgery. A number of these smaller hospitals do not report their wait time data to WTIS. Text adapted from the Comprehensiveness of Cancer Surgery Reporting: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/waittimes/surgery/data.aspx#4