Here are answers to some common questions about how Ontario hospitals measure wait times :

• What treatments do we track wait times for?
• How do we measure wait times?
• Why do some hospitals report their wait times while others don’t?

We track the following 6 service areas in Ontario  :

• cancer surgery
• cardiac procedures
• ophthalmic surgery (including cataract surgery)
• orthopaedic surgery (including hip and knee replacement)
• diagnostic scans - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerized Tomography
• general surgery

Links to information about radiation, systemic therapy, and cardiac wait times in Ontario are available, as well as information about Ontario paediatric surgical wait times.

We measure wait times in 2 ways :

• Surgical wait times: We track the time between when a surgery is ordered and when it is performed
• Diagnostic scans (MRI and CT) wait times: We track the time between when a diagnostic scan is ordered and when it is completed.

Today, only hospitals that get funding for extra cases have to report wait times. This will change In the future.