“They Are Not Going to Be Happy”: An Ethnographic Study of the Prioritization of Patients Awaiting Elective Surgery in an Academic Hospital in the Netherlands
Published online on February 21, 2026
Abstract
Medical Decision Making, Volume 46, Issue 4, Page 480-488, May 2026.
BackgroundTo reduce variation in waiting time for elective surgery, a Dutch academic hospital introduced a classification system based on urgency scores to standardize decision making. Physicians, however, retain clinical discretion in assigning urgency ...
BackgroundTo reduce variation in waiting time for elective surgery, a Dutch academic hospital introduced a classification system based on urgency scores to standardize decision making. Physicians, however, retain clinical discretion in assigning urgency ...