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| Patients Waiting (Monthly Average) |
296 |
| Number of Patient Cases Completed (Monthly Average) |
193 |
| Emergency/Urgent (RMWT* 0 - 14 days) Median Wait |
2 days |
| Emergency/Urgent (RMWT* 0 - 14 days) Surgery within RMWT |
82% |
| Semi-Urgent (RMWT* 15 - 42 days) Median Wait |
6 days |
| Semi-Urgent (RMWT* 15 - 42 days) Surgery within RMWT* |
75% |
| Elective (RMWT* 43 - 180 days) Median Wait |
48 days |
| Elective (RMWT* 43 - 180 days) Surgery within RMWT* |
72% |
There are notes below explaining the information.
This table shows how many adult patients have open-heart surgery at The
Toronto Hospital.
It also shows how long patients usually wait for surgery and whether their
waiting time falls within a recommended time range. This information is
provided to help doctors and patients
in the referral process for surgical treatment of heart disease.
All patients accepted for surgery by a heart surgeon are registered on the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario's (CCN) computer system. Waiting times are monitored until patients have surgery.
The next update of these statistics is scheduled for March 1, 1997.
Patients Waiting This is the average number of patients at the end of each month who have been accepted for open-heart surgery by a heart surgeon, but have not had surgery yet.
Number of Patient Cases Completed This is the average number of patients who had open-heart surgery each month.
Median Wait Median waiting times mean that half of the patients waited less and half waited longer than the median number of days.
Surgery within RMWT (Recommended Maximum Waiting Time) This tells how often patients have surgery within a recommended time period, which is estimated based on the seriousness of their medical condition. For example, a statistic of 75% would mean that three out of every four patients in that group had surgery within the recommended maximum waiting time for each of them. Recommended maximum waiting times are grouped into the following ranges:
Emergency Patients - Surgery without delay
Urgent Patients - Surgery within 14 days
Semi-Urgent Patients - Surgery within 42 days
Elective Patients - Surgery within 180 days
Patients' recommended maximum waiting times may fall anywhere within the applicable time range. For example, one elective patient may be assigned a recommended maximum waiting time of 43 days, while another may be assigned a recommended maximum waiting time of 180 days.
Adult open-heart surgery consists mostly of heart bypass surgery and surgery to repair or replace damaged heart valves. Bypass surgery is one of the most common major surgical procedures performed in Canada. In this operation, a blood vessel is taken from another part of the body (usually the leg) to bypass an area of blockage that is preventing blood and oxygen from reaching the heart. Depending on the extent of the blockage, one, two, three or four areas may be bypassed. This is called single, double, triple or quadruple bypass surgery.
Heart Surgeons are also known as cardiovascular, cardiac or cardio-thoracic surgeons. The other group of heart specialists, cardiologists are not surgeons. Cardiologists diagnose and treat heart disease by non-surgical means. "Invasive" cardiologists may perform heart catheterization, angioplasty, stent and pacemaker procedures.
Waiting periods shown in the above table do not include time spent investigating heart disease before a patient is accepted for surgery by a heart surgeon. For example, the time it takes for a patient to have a heart catheterization procedure before being referred to a heart surgeon is not part of the waiting time shown for heart surgery. If a patient's medical condition changes while waiting for surgery, the waiting time will be recalculated.