Wait time metadata

Overview

Since 2004, when Canada’s first ministers agreed to work to reduce wait times, provincial governments have worked with CIHI to improve public wait time reporting for cancer treatment, cardiac care, diagnostic imaging, joint replacement and sight restoration.

Wait time data provides a snapshot of how long patients wait for a priority procedure. For those procedures where a benchmark has been established, it also shows the proportion of patients who receive care within this benchmark time frame. To view the data, please visit CIHI’s Wait Times tool.

Find out more about the wait time definitions and methodology (PPTX), or access reports and wait time data.

For any questions, contact us at healthreports@cihi.ca.

Data source

Aggregate wait time data is received from provincial representatives for the following scheduled procedures:

Provincial level

Hip replacement
Knee replacement
Cataract surgery
Radiation therapy
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
Computed tomography (CT) scan
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Cancer surgery (5 body sites: bladder, breast, colorectal, lung and prostate)

Regional level

Hip replacement
Knee replacement

CIHI calculates wait time information for hip fracture repair using its Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) and National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS) in Ontario and Alberta.

For procedures other than hip fracture repair, CIHI calculates national estimates for the median and 90th percentile using a weighted average of provincial submissions. Weights are calculated using provincially submitted surgical volumes.

Data availability

Comparable data is available for the period April 1 to September 30 of each year.

Most recent year: 2024
Next release: 2025 (April 2026)
Historical series: 2008 to 2023

The years of available data and provincial coverage vary by procedure. For details, refer to CIHI’s Indicator library.

The data set includes the following metrics:

Median: Half of all patients waited this many days (or hours) before receiving care.
90th percentile: 1 out of 10 patients waited this many days (or hours) or more before receiving care.
Volumes for all procedures
The proportion of patients that received their procedure within the benchmark time frame (where applicable)

Classification

The Comparable Indicators of Access Sub Committee (CIASC) developed a pan-Canadian definition for wait time measurement in 2005. This definition was adopted by the federal, provincial and territorial ministries.

The provinces and CIHI use ICD-10-CA (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Canada) and CCI (Canadian Classification of Health Interventions) to define priority surgical procedures.

ICD-10-CA and CCI documents

Data elements

The data set contains information on the following procedures:

Hip replacement
Knee replacement
Hip fracture repair
Cataract surgery
Radiation therapy
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Computed tomography (CT) scan
Cancer surgery (5 body sites: bladder, breast, colorectal, lung and prostate)

Data quality

The provinces and CIHI work together to validate the quality of the data and ensure accurate analyses about wait times. CIHI conducts data quality analyses on an ongoing basis to ensure the quality of its wait time data. Read more about our Data and Information Quality Program.