Health Care Professionals
How is SPR data used?
What is the Diagnosis Based Prioritization System?
How can a surgeon or MOA access their SPR data and reports?
How do HA Health Care professionals get access to SPR data?
Surgical Patient Registry data provides decision-making information for surgeons, health authorities and the Ministry of Health Services.
For example, the information in the SPR can provide:
- Wait time calculation from the date of decision for surgery to when the booking package is received in the OR booking office and then to the date when the surgery is performed.
- A diagnosis description is used by the surgeon to determine the urgency for surgery (Surgeons may also find this useful in communicating to patients when there are questions as to where they are on the list and how that is determined.)
The SPR data is intended to inform and support surgeon decision making by providing the surgeon with prioritization information to be used as part of the process for determining the urgency of the patient’s surgery. SPR data shows comparisons of surgical services across jurisdictions. The data can be used by health authorities and the Ministry of Health Services for better planning, monitoring and evaluating the use of surgical resources at the regional and provincial level.
Reports are generated daily so staff can monitor the details, and correct any errors. This daily upload of data and ongoing error management process ensures that the information in the SPR is as current and accurate as possible. In addition, the SPR will identify situations where a patient has scheduled the same surgery with more than one surgeon.
SPR data is the source for the Ministry of Health Services public wait times website http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/swt/.
What is the Diagnosis Based Prioritization system?
Surgeons will assign patients to priority levels in accordance with their diagnosis and clinical condition. This system is based on similar approaches used in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Ontario, and the Canadian Paediatric Surgical Wait Times Project.
This system will store patient prioritization information in the Surgical Patient Registry (SPR). SPR data will provide surgeons with up-to-date reports on waitlisted patients – including where they stand in relation to their wait time target.
What are the benefits of this system?
This system was developed in consultation with 14 Surgical Reference Groups and over 120 surgeons representing all surgical sub specialties and health authorities in B.C.
The final product of this extensive surgeon consultation process is a comprehensive listing of adult and paediatric diagnosis/condition descriptions for each surgical specialty, which correspond to one of 5 priority levels for adults and 7 priority levels for paediatrics. Each priority level has a related recommended wait time benchmark.
The most significant benefit of this new system is the achievement of an objective and standardized methodology for designating patient diagnosis/condition descriptions to a priority level and improve access for B.C.’s patients. The new system increases the ability to identify areas with excessive wait times and provides for a better understanding of operational efficiencies.
This system is intended as a useful tool to assist surgeons with managing their surgical waitlist. The decision as to when a patient undergoes surgery remains between the surgeon, and the patient. Through accurate wait list management, the key objective of the new system is to better identify areas in which improvements are necessary.
How does this effect OR Bookings?
Clinical description codes are required on the OR booking form for all adult and paediatric patients (paediatrics defined by the MoH as age 17 years less a day).
Other changes that will be effective at the same time include a revised cancer question. The new options now include Cancer Proven, Cancer Suspected, Cancer Not Proven or Suspected.
Date of Decision for Surgery is also a mandatory field. Changes will be reflected on the OR Booking Form.
If you are a Health Authority Health Care professional in BC wanting access to summary provincial wait time data through the SPR Data Mart, you will require permission from the HA SPR Administrator in your region prior to recieving access to data.
If you would like to access BC SPR data, please follow these steps:
Step 1: Complete the following form:
Mac users may require to download
Firefox to open the above links.
Step 2: Submit the completed form to the HA SPR Administrator in your region:
Step 3 - Access Granted
Once your access is set up, you will be e-mailed your username and password. Step-by-step instructions to access SPR data.
You will now have access to SPR data.