AHS website lists ER wait times for major centres

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 6, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

How long can a person expect to wait in Emergency to see a doctor?
That information is available on the Alberta Health Services website which has listings for six major Alberta centres.
AHS says the estimated wait time “is approximate and for information only. The wait time is based on the average patient and does not reflect the wait for those who are critically ill or injured or those with minor conditions. We provide care to the most critical cases first,” says AHS. It adds that wait times are based on demand and can change unexpectedly.
The wait time at Chinook Regional Hospital in mid-afternoon Tuesday was estimated at four hours and nine minutes. In Medicine Hat, the wait time was one hour and 38 minutes.
Wait times in Calgary varied from one hour 56 minutes at Alberta Children’s Hospital – open for patients 17 and under – to five hours five minutes at the Peter Lougheed Centre. At Rockyview General Hospital the wait was two hours 18 minutes while at the South Health Campus it was four hours 11 minutes. At Foothills Medical Centre, the wait was four hours 15 minutes.
In the provincial capital of Edmonton, wait times ranged from one hour 55 minutes at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital to eight hours 16 minutes at Misericordia Community Hospital.
Wait times at the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital were two hours 10 minutes while patients at the Red Deer Regional Hospital could expect to wait two hours seven minutes.
AHS says patients could be seen faster than wait times indicate. Those times don’t apply to more seriously sick or injured patients and reflect how long it could take from an assessment by a triage nurse to being seen by a doctor. Wait times don’t reflect the amount of time a patient may actually spend in hospital, says AHS.
“Wait times can be artificially high in the early morning when staffing is lower, but will improve significantly when more staff begin work. Wait times can also change quickly if a serious trauma case arrives, or there is a high number of critically ill patients at a particular site,” notes AHS.
In British Columbia, wait times at hospitals varied widely at select hospital from just over one hour in Surrey to slightly over three hours in Vancouver.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, between March 2021 and April 2022, 90 per cent of patients to an Emergency department were seen by a doctor within four hours. Between 2017-18 the wait was up to three hours on average nationally.
“Time is crucial to the effectiveness and outcome of patient care, especially for emergency patients,” says the CIHI in a post on its website.

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