Waiting Time Management in Healthcare Access
Summary
Waiting time management in healthcare access encompasses the policies, processes and tools designed to minimise delays between a patient’s request for care and the delivery of that care. It spans elective surgery, specialist consultations and emergency services, and engages stakeholders across primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Key strategies include centralised referral systems, explicit prioritisation or triage protocols based on clinical urgency, digital scheduling platforms, and legal guarantees of maximum permissible waits. Effective management not only improves patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes but also enhances system efficiency by smoothing demand peaks, reducing no-show rates and alleviating backlogs. Equity is central to this endeavour: waiting times must be determined by medical need rather than ability to pay or social status. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified backlogs worldwide, prompting renewed emphasis on dynamic prioritisation tools and resource-allocation models. Quantitative approaches, from queuing theory to simulation modelling, inform capacity planning and reveal bottlenecks, while qualitative inquiries highlight patients’ psychosocial experiences during waits and the importance of transparent communication. Together, these interdisciplinary efforts aim to deliver timely, fair and sustainable access to care on a global scale.
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Waiting Time Management in Healthcare Access publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in waiting time management in healthcare access across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Backlog: Accumulation of pending cases awaiting assessment or treatment due to resource constraints.
Centralised referral system: A model in which all referrals are processed through a single entry point to optimise queue management and reduce duplication.
Prioritisation (triage): The systematic allocation of patients into urgency categories to ensure those with greatest clinical need are treated first.
Waiting time guarantee: A legal or policy framework that defines a maximum allowable interval between referral and treatment.
Socioeconomic gradient: The relationship between social or economic status and access to or outcomes of care.
References
- Socioeconomic inequalities in hospital access for prostate cancer before and after COVID-19. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences (2024).
- Information and support to patients when the waiting time guarantee cannot be fulfilled: a qualitative study. International Journal for Equity in Health (2023).
- Socioeconomic inequality in access to timely and appropriate care in emergency departments. Journal of Health Economics (2022).
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