title: What are the costs of queuing for hip fracture surgery in Canada?
abstract: This paper investigates the effect of wait time for hip fracture surgery in Canada on post-surgery length of stay in hospital and inpatient mortality. After controlling for observed and unobserved patient and hospital characteristics, pre-surgery delay has little effect on either of the two outcome variables. Patients from higher income postal-codes experience only slightly shorter delays, and income has no substantial effect on post-surgery outcomes. For hip fracture patients surgery delay may lead to greater pre-surgery inpatient costs and more patient discomfort, but we find no evidence of a detrimental impact on post-surgery outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: V H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Mayo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D006302:Health Services Research; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000601:surgery*; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D018803:Models, Economic; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014850:Waiting Lists