Every year, thousands of patients in Norway wait for months, sometimes years, for treatments that can dramatically improve their quality of life. Take Ingrid, for example, a 35-year-old teacher from Oslo who is on the waiting list for shoulder surgery. With an estimated waiting time of 12 months, she faces months of uncertainty. Months that will affect her ability to work, care for her family, and live without pain. Ingrid's situation is unfortunately not unique. Across the healthcare system, long waiting times have consequences that extend far beyond the inconvenience.

At the core of this problem lies a significant opportunity: better planning and smarter use of resources can dramatically reduce waiting times and the hidden costs that come with them. Based on results from Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital (LDS), this article takes a closer look at the economic, social, and human consequences of waiting times. We also look at how innovative technology solutions such as Deepinsight Hero are helping to change the pace and direction of Norwegian healthcare.

The human cost of waiting

For patients like Ingrid, long waiting times come at a high price. As the months pass, her pain worsens, forcing her to take more sick leave and limit her daily activities. Research shows that delayed treatment leads to increased mental stress, anxiety, and deterioration of physical condition.

At Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital (LDS), optimizing operating room scheduling reduced the waiting lists in ENT and orthopedics by 23.5%, meaning fewer patients had to suffer unnecessarily while waiting for critical procedures. Every reduced wait means fewer patients like Ingrid are exposed to prolonged physical suffering or emotional stress. At LDS, every reduced wait contributes to faster recovery, less emotional strain, and an overall better experience of Norwegian healthcare.

The costs for healthcare personnel

Meanwhile, hospitals face their own challenges. At LDS, inefficient planning led to empty operating rooms despite long patient queues. For every day Ingrid waits, there are untapped opportunities to optimize operating schedules and treat more patients.

Before Deepinsight Hero was implemented, LDS faced challenges common to many hospitals: empty operating rooms despite high demand, time-consuming manual planning processes, and unpredictable workflows. These inefficiencies wasted valuable resources and created frustration among healthcare staff, who struggled to keep up with demand while operating under suboptimal conditions.

With the introduction of the planning tool Deepinsight Hero, LDS was able to unlock the hidden potential in its resources. Operating room utilization increased by 17%, making room for 3-4 additional operations per room per month, without increasing the burden on existing staff.

Improved operations freed up time from routine tasks and gave employees better conditions for a workday that feels manageable. Planning processes that previously took hours or days were now completed in a fraction of the time, allowing staff to focus on what matters most – delivering high-quality patient care.

For healthcare personnel, waiting time is not just about money, but about morale, efficiency, and the ability to deliver what is expected of them. At LDS, strategic innovation has shown that better planning is also good for those who care for patients. 

The societal costs of waiting times

Ingrid's case also highlights the broader economic consequences. She cannot work because of worsening pain and must take longer sick leave, which burdens both her employer and the public welfare system. Multiply this by thousands of patients, and the cost to society grows exponentially.

Just consider the productivity loss when people cannot work because of untreated health conditions. A patient on the waiting list for a joint replacement may be unable to do their job for months, creating an economic burden for both the individual and the employer. For caregivers, the burden of supporting a loved one while waiting for treatment can lead to absence, burnout, and even lost income.

At a macroeconomic level, these individual challenges add up. Longer waiting times mean greater dependence on social welfare programs, higher costs for long-term care, and reduced participation in the workforce. The economic costs to society increase exponentially when patients who could have been treated earlier instead require more intensive and expensive care as their condition worsens.

Hospitals like LDS show how these societal costs can be reduced by cutting waiting times. By increasing operating room capacity and reducing waiting lists, LDS enables patients to return to work more quickly, easing the financial burden on families and contributing to a more productive economy. With tools like Deepinsight Hero, healthcare can improve outcomes for individual patients while also strengthening society as a whole.

The economic case for reducing waiting times

For hospitals, every delayed procedure represents a financial loss. At LDS, the financial gain from better planning was estimated at approximately NOK 2.3 million extra per room in annual revenue, showing that investing in efficiency pays off.

For patients like Ingrid, shorter waiting times mean financial stability, reducing the risk of long-term disability and dependence on social assistance. If Ingrid had been operated on several months earlier, she could have returned to work sooner and avoided the financial strain that comes with prolonged sick leave.

Multiply this scenario by thousands of patients across the country, and the economic consequences become clear: delayed treatment leads to reduced workforce participation, increased dependence on public welfare, and higher overall healthcare costs.

The numbers are clear: waiting times are costly – for hospitals, for the individual, and for society as a whole.

High waiting times affect the hospital's reputation

In healthcare, a hospital's reputation is crucial. Long waiting times can undermine that reputation and lead to patient dissatisfaction, difficulties recruiting staff, and weakened political and community support.

Take Ingrid, a patient who experienced significant delays in treatment. The long wait led to frustration and loss of trust in the hospital responsible for her care. And for some patients, such negative experiences can even affect trust in the healthcare system as a whole. Several studies have shown that long waiting times are associated with lower patient satisfaction, negative assessments of healthcare quality, and reduced willingness to return or recommend the institution further. In other words, long waiting times weaken the reputation of treatment institutions.

Conversely, hospitals that succeed in reducing waiting times can significantly strengthen trust in their services. For patients like Ingrid, shorter waiting times can be decisive for the experience of quality, safety, and respect – regardless of where in the healthcare system the treatment takes place.

Better flow and more predictable patient pathways also contribute to a more supportive working environment for staff, which can strengthen morale and make it easier to recruit and retain skilled healthcare personnel. At the system level, hospitals that manage waiting times well are often highlighted as examples of good resource utilization and effective organization of healthcare services, and can therefore attract positive attention and support from decision-makers.

The consequences of weakened trust in healthcare

When individual patients repeatedly experience delays, inconsistencies, or a lack of transparency in treatment, this can have consequences that extend far beyond the walls of a single hospital. Over time, this contributes to weakening trust in the healthcare system as a whole.

Public trust is fundamental to a well-functioning healthcare system. It affects how people seek treatment, follow medical advice, and support funding or reform initiatives. When trust is weakened, it becomes harder to deliver effective healthcare services, even with the best systems and intentions in place.

This underscores why reducing waiting times is not just about hospital performance: it is essential to maintaining society's trust in the public healthcare system.

How technology can help solve the problem

At Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital (LDS), AI-driven technology proved to be a game-changer. By implementing Deepinsight Hero, LDS optimized operating room schedules, resulting in a 17% increase in operating room utilization and freeing up 2,400 additional working hours annually. The solution also received a usability score of 82 out of 100 at LDS, which is very high in the healthcare sector. These gains translated directly into better patient access, fewer canceled procedures, and a measurable reduction in waiting lists.

For hospital staff, the automation meant less time spent on administrative tasks and more time focused on patient care. For patients like Ingrid, it meant a faster path to treatment, allowing her to return to work sooner and avoid the physical and emotional strain of prolonged waiting.

Let's cut waiting times

The hidden costs of waiting are too great to ignore. For hospitals, they mean lost opportunities, overburdened staff, and inefficient use of valuable resources. For patients like Ingrid, they mean pain, uncertainty, and an increasing loss of trust in the care they depend on. 

Ingrid waited 12 months for surgery. Each week that passed brought more frustration, more discomfort, and more moments she could never get back.

But it does not have to be that way.

At Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, smarter planning has reduced waiting lists by 23.5%, increased operating room utilization by 17%, and freed up thousands of working hours – all without expanding staff or facilities. The tools are already here. The results are already underway.

Now it is up to leaders, policymakers, and innovators in healthcare to act.

Let's ensure that patients receive treatment faster and do not wait longer than necessary. 

Let's make full use of the hospitals' potential.

Let's cut waiting times.