ONTARIO PATIENTS ACCEPTANCE OF WAITING-TIMES FOR KNEE REPLACEMENTS

Objective. To determine waiting times for an initial orthopedic consul tation and subsequent knee replacement surgery in Ontario and patients ' acceptance of these waiting times. Methods. Mailed patient survey to 185 randomly selected knee replacement recipients discharged from 5 O ntario hospitals between 1985 and 1990, with telephone followup after 2 mailings, implemented between May and July, 1992. Patients were aske d about waiting times for their initial orthopedic consultation and su bsequent knee replacement surgery and their acceptance of these waitin g times. Results. Of the 185 patients, 40 were excluded because they w ere deceased, unable to respond, or not traceable. Of the 145 eligible patients, 127 or 87.6% responded. The median waiting times for an ini tial consultation and for knee replacement surgery were 4.0 and 9.5 we eks, respectively. Waiting times did not change significantly over the 5-year study period (Pearson correlation coefficients: 0.07, p = 0.53 , for consultation, and -0.08, p = 0.44, for surgery). The waiting tim es for consultation and surgery were acceptable to 93.2% (95% confiden ce interval: 88.7-97.7%) and 88.1% (95% confidence interval: 82.3-93.9 %) of respondents, respectively. The average acceptable surgical waiti ng time of 13.2 weeks was significantly shorter than the not acceptabl e average of 34.3 weeks (p<0.001). Conclusion. The average waiting per iods for an initial orthopedic consultation and subsequent knee replac ement surgery were relatively short, and the majority of patients cons idered their waiting times acceptable.