What can comparisons of mortality rates tell us about waiting lists?
David C. Hadorn Dr. Hadorn is Research Director, Western Canada Waiting List Project. The fact that Canadians must regularly queue for health services – often for months – is a continuing source of frustration and dissatisfaction with the health care system. The situation is particularly fraught when patients die while waiting for services that might have prolonged their lives. Such deaths probably occur most frequently among patients waiting for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), although patients dying of cancer while waiting for diagnostic and therapeutic services are also a source of concern. To monitor performance and quality of care, it is necessary to know whether or not the mortality among patients waiting for CABG is excessive in view of the considerable and continuing mortality among patients with severe cardiac problems, even after CABG. One reasonable approach to answer such a question would be to ask well-informed, independent clinicians to scrutinize the circumstance
