Patient and physician perspectives of maximum acceptable waiting times for cataract surgery

Patient experiences during waiting time for dental treatment

“…Waiting for health services that are more fundamental for acceptable survival in everyday life, like cataract or hip and knee replacement surgery, could be expected to cause more inconvenience. The maximum acceptable waiting times for such surgery is similar to or even longer [14][15][16][17] than that expressed by dental patients in the present study. This discrepancy can be interpreted as an indication that dental services are relatively highly valued by patients.…”

The acceptability of waiting times for elective general surgery and the appropriateness of prioritising patients

“…The average waiting times for the three disorders ranged from 2 to 7 weeks in case of severe symptoms and from 15 to 25 weeks for patients with few symptoms. Whereas other studies looking at the opinions of patients and doctors on acceptable waiting times for the patient groups in our study are lacking, studies on the patients' and doctors' views on maximum waits for hip and knee arthroplasty [35] and cataract surgery [36] show similar distinctions in the acceptable waiting times for patients with different symptom status. This diversity in acceptable waiting times obviously challenges the sufficiency of a single waiting time threshold to guarantee high quality health care.…”

Waiting times for cataract surgery in ten European countries: An analysis using data from the SHARE survey

“…19 Another study performed by Conner-Spady et al showed that the patient-rated maximum acceptable waiting time of 9.8 weeks was significantly shorter than the physician-rated maximum acceptable waiting time of 15.1 weeks for cataract surgery. 18 A Dutch study found a relation between patient satisfaction and the patient's preoperative expectations and explained that if patients are adequately informed about waiting times they are often willing to accept longer time. 15 We also should consider that shorter waiting times for surgery are not always imposed by a system, as there are patients who prefer a longer waiting time to a shorter one postponing surgery until a time that is more convenient to them.…”