The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) des Laurentides has implemented a series of innovative measures to tackle the long waiting times for surgeries, an issue that worsened significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. The results have been promising.
Between 2021 and 2023, nearly one in ten patients in the CISSS des Laurentides region had been waiting for surgery for over a year. Faced with such a backlog, the health organization had to adopt an aggressive approach to streamline the process and improve efficiency.
A Strategic Overhaul
“We had to come up with ideas,” says Dany Savard, Associate Director of the Surgery Program at CISSS des Laurentides. One of the key solutions introduced was patient grouping, where individuals were given the option of being operated on at a different hospital or by a different surgeon. This approach has been successful, with many patients agreeing to the proposed changes, thus accelerating the surgery scheduling process.
In addition, the CISSS des Laurentides has prioritized overdue and outpatient surgeries, organizing specialized “blitz days” in operating rooms. This strategy required additional management efforts but yielded significant results.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” says Dr. Jasmin Charbonneau, an anesthesiologist, intensive care physician, and regional head of anesthesiology. In less than a year, the number of overdue surgeries decreased dramatically from 1,009 to 409.
A Look at the Numbers
| Year | Number of Overdue Surgeries |
| 2019 | 7 |
| 2020 | 63 |
| 2021 | 1,341 |
| 2022 | 1,628 |
| 2023 | 1,240 |
| 2024 | 1,009 |
| 2025 (as of March 18) | 409 |
Private Clinics Play a Role
Private clinics have also been brought into the equation to help reduce the burden on public hospitals. Over the past year, approximately 13% to 14% of procedures were performed in private facilities, with ophthalmology, orthopedics, general surgery, and plastic surgery being the most common cases handled outside the public system.
However, not all healthcare professionals are fully convinced about the long-term effectiveness of these measures. Dr. Véronique Godbout, President of the Quebec Orthopedic Association, raises concerns about the sustainability of the approach.
“It looks good on paper because the number of patients waiting for more than a year is decreasing, but all other patients are still facing long waits. There isn’t more surgical time available overall,” she explains.
With nearly 155,000 people in Quebec still waiting for surgery, Dr. Godbout believes the solution is purely mathematical: “Either we operate on more patients in a single day or we increase the number of surgery days. Those are the only two ways to tackle the issue.”
No One-Size-Fits-All Solution
Both the CISSS des Laurentides and medical specialists agree that there is no universal fix for reducing surgical wait times. While the current strategies have proven effective in alleviating some of the backlog, long-term improvements will require ongoing adjustments, increased resources, and potentially systemic changes in how healthcare services are delivered across the province.
