Waiting for an operation: parents' perspectives.

Objective: To determine parents' attitudes toward and acceptance of waiting times for their child's operation.

Design: Waiting times were measured by a cross-sectional method. A descriptive survey was conducted of families with a child waiting for a non-urgent operation.

Setting: A university teaching hospital.

Subjects: Parents of children (age < 20 yr) waiting for non-urgent pediatric general-surgery operations.

Main Outcome Measures: Parents' concerns and attitudes about waiting for their child's operation, how it was affecting the child and family, how urgent they felt the need for surgery was, and what they thought was a reasonable maximum waiting period.

Results: Of 89 patients waiting for non-urgent pediatric general-surgery operations at the time of the survey, 61% had been waiting > 6 months and 30% > 12 months. Of the 57 families (64%) who returned completed surveys, 94% reported the wait to be emotionally stressful for the family; 81.5% expected their child's quality of life would improve after the operation. As for length of wait, 83% felt that > 3 months was unacceptable, and 98% > 6 months.

Conclusions: Parents of children waiting for pediatric general surgery operations thought that the need for the operation was significantly more urgent then their classification of elective. They felt that waiting periods should not exceed 3 months. Long waiting periods are stressful for both family and child. Parental perceptions are important when considering strategies for wait-list management.