Waiting-time targets in the healthcare sector: How long are we waiting?

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Health Economics
Year: 2009
Volume: 28
Issue: 6
Pages: 1081-1098

Authors (2)

Dixon, Huw (not in RePEc) Siciliani, Luigi (University of York)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Waiting-time targets are used by policy makers to monitor providers' performance. Such targets are based on the distribution of the patients on the list. We compare and link such distribution with the distribution of waiting time of patients treated, as opposed to on the list, which is a better measure of total disutility from waiting (although can only be calculated retrospectively). We show that the latter can be calculated from the former, and vice versa. We also show that, depending on how the hazard rate varies with time waited, the proportion of patients on the list waiting more than x periods can be higher or lower than the proportion of patients treated waiting more than x periods. However, empirically we find that the proportion of patients waiting on the list more than x months is smaller than our estimate of the proportion of patients treated waiting more than x months.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jhecon:v:28:y:2009:i:6:p:1081-1098
Journal Field
Health
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25