Waiting time information services: what are the implications of waiting list behaviour for their design?

In some countries, patients requiring elective surgery can access comparative waiting time information for various surgical units. What someone can deduce from this information will depend upon how the statistics are derived, and how waiting lists behave. However, empirical analyses of waiting list behaviour are scarce. This study analysed three years of waiting list data collected at one hospital in Sydney, Australia. The results highlight various issues that raise questions about using particular waiting time statistics to make inferences about patient waiting times. In particular, the results highlight the considerable variation in behaviour that can exist between surgeons in the same specialty, and that can occur over time.