Rapid Evidence Report

Rapid Evidence Reports include: A clear statement of the issue and the background to the issue/problem; A description of the scope and nature of the pertinent English-language scientific literature from the past five years; A summary of the principal features of the available evidence – points of consensus, points of disagreement, areas of uncertainty or silence on some or all of the followi [...] Rather, a Rapid Evidence Report provides decision makers with a summary of the scope and nature of the recent scientific literature on the topic in question, an initial assessment of the strengths and gaps in this literature, and a review of the key points of agreement and disagreement among researchers. [...] The research literature on this topic does not include an agreed-upon definition of the term “wait time.” Differences in operational definitions of the term relate to selecting the point in the healthcare journey at which a patient is properly considered to be “waiting” for a service (5, 6). [...] Having reviewed the evidence base and consulted with provincial healthcare stakeholders, we reformulated the research question as: “What is the evidence for the effectiveness of enhanced techniques for scheduling appointments and managing wait lists in reducing wait times for outpatient services?” The research question was reframed based on the existing literature on wait times. [...] While the number of outpatient visits was reduced by 13.6%, the resulting impact of the intervention on wait times was not reported (10).2 Finally, Schoch and Adair (11) audited the wait list for orthopedic outpatients at a hospital location and found that 24% of patients reported that they no longer needed to be on the wait list.