Wait times in the real world
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* Sandi Pniauskas

Wayne Kondro1 quotes Glenda Yeates, of the Canadian Institute for Health Information, as saying “There is no average person or average wait.” I would like to add to this by quoting Donald Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement who, in my view, has said it best: “Some is not a number; soon is not a time.”

There is never going to be enough information. Even if, by chance, we do make it to the point where we have enough information, we will then be discussing the pros and the cons of the data collection. The rhetorical question remains: At what point do these exercises actually begin to translate into something meaningful at the patient level?

## REFERENCE

1.  1. Kondro W. Apples, oranges and wait times: CIHI report. CMAJ 2006;174(9):1246.
    
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