The impact of public performance reporting on cancer elective surgery waiting times: a data linkage study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Excessive waiting times for cancer elective surgery are a concern in publicly funded healthcare systems. Several countries including Australia have introduced healthcare reforms involving time-based targets and public performance reporting (PPR) of hospital data. However, there is mixed evidence of their benefits. We sought to examine the impact of targets and PPR of cancer elective surgery waiting times on access to breast, bowel and lung cancer elective surgery.

Methods

We analysed routinely-collected linked data on admissions and waiting times for patients aged 15 years or over (n = 199,885) who underwent cancer surgery in a public hospital in Victoria, Australia over a 10-year period. We conducted difference-in-differences analyses to compare waiting times bef

SUBMITTER: Prang KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7871621 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature