Access to MRI in Ontario

Many important pieces of information are missing, however, including: 1. Accurate inpatient diagnostic testing data; 2. Patients’ presenting symptoms and the reason(s) for ordering the MRI; 3. An accurate assessment of waiting time; 4. The results of the MRI, and its impact upon patient management and outcome; 5. The relative impact of the MRI results compared with the results of other less expens [...] This report examines: 1. Why examination of waiting times for MRI is important in 2002; 2. The challenges of assessing wait times for MRI; 3. Local, national and international studies of MRI wait times; 4. The utilization and cost of MRI in Ontario over the past 10 years using administrative data, and provides a discussion of the opportunities and limitations of using these data for examining MRI [...] Unfortunately, the reliability of the scale between patients was poor and it was not clear whether this approach would yield a useful standardized tool for assessing the indications for MRI or other diagnostic tests 6. The Ontario response to the Health Canada wait times report was the Ontario Waiting List project (OWL), commissioned to the Joint Policy and Planning Committee by the Ontario MoHLTC [...] On the final business day of each month, each hospital counts the number of patients waiting for diagnostic tests and measures the length of time from when a requisition was received to the time of the next available appointment. [...] Age was calculated from the 1st of July of the year of patient birth to the date of MRI scan.