Editorial: Ontario's Wait Time Information System: learning from success.

The expression goes that we should learn from our mistakes. Well, here is an opportunity for us to learn from our success. The development and implementation of information technology (IT) for use in healthcare is a challenging pursuit. Projects that fail, particularly if they are funded by government, can be intensely criticized by the Auditor General, opposition parties and/or the news media. When there is a major IT success (and there are many), they receive little praise or recognition. The result? The public and political leaders believe incorrectly that failure of government IT projects is almost inevitable. This Special Issue of Healthcare Quarterly is entirely devoted to breaking this vicious circle by celebrating a major government-funded health IT success – Ontario's Wait Time Information System (WTIS). The WTIS is no minor success. In just four months a strategy was created. In less than two years the system was developed, deployed and put into use in hospitals throughout Ontario. As of March 2009, 86 hospitals are using the system. Data captured from more than 3,300 doctors is being used to calculate and publicly report on wait times involving more than 2.2 million surgical procedures and MRI/ CT scans. And it doesn't end there. The WTIS is expanding to include more of the continuum of care, notably the wait times of alternate level of care patients who have received their hospital care and are waiting to be discharged to another, more appropriate, setting. The goals for developing the WTIS have been met and wait times in Ontario are down significantly. Moreover, the WTIS is enabling hospitals and doctors to focus on their accountability and on improving their performance. So what can we learn from this very successful endeavour? The answer to this question is covered from a variety of perspectives in the excellent articles included in this Special Issue. I was pleased to be asked to review these articles and write this editorial, as it helped crystallize in my mind what really makes IT projects successful. Before you read them, let me summarize what the authors believe are a few of the key ingredients that helped the WTIS achieve its remarkable goals: • Appointing a talented leader (in this case Sarah Kramer) as the single point of accountability for the IT development and implementation; • Capitalizing on existing public pressure, government priority and provider interest in achieving the system's primary goal (in …