Ontario sets 8-hour maximum on ER waits
February 19, 2009
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Tanya Talaga
Megan Ogilvie
HEALTH REPORTERS
In a push to bring down lengthy waits inside Ontario hospital emergency rooms, the province has set time targets on how long patients should spend inside ERs — 4 hours for those suffering from uncomplicated health problems and 8 hours for those with more complex problems.
After the province started to collect numbers from 128 emergency rooms on how long it takes for someone to be seen, diagnosed and then moved onto treatment, or, out of the ER, officials discovered that 9 out of 10 patients with minor ailments seeking treatment wait about 4.6 hours.
And those with more serious medical problems — such as cancer or cardiac patients in need of a hospital bed — wait nearly 13.5 hours.
Extra money to drive waits down will be the incentive for hospitals to act, not to mention the posting of each hospitals wait times, in hours, on a public website. The figures for individual hospitals will be released this afternoon. However, this data was collected in October, 2008. The goal is to eventually have more current numbers online.
Dr. Alan Hudson, the neurologist and former president of the University Health Network, is behind the public reporting drive. He is the province's lead investigator into wait times.
The move to publicly release time spent in an ER, in hours, on a public website is part of the government's $109-million strategy to direct patients away from emergency rooms if they don't need to be there. The majority of people who go to ERs, nearly 90 per cent, are not admitted to a hospital bed. In addition to publicly listing the amount of time patients spend in emergency rooms, the province is encouraging patients to use family health teams, nurse practitioner clinics and walk-in clinics. That information can be obtained through a new website: www.ontario.ca/healthcareoptions.
The waits in larger urban centres appear to be longer, according to health ministry officials. But they also see more complex patients.
Central Toronto hospitals have some of the longest ER times in the province, according to today's Star. Most admitted to hospital from an ER in central Toronto spend up to 31.1 hours in emergency, that includes treatment and wait times.
For the rest of patients seeking treatment in a Toronto ER but who are not admitted to hospital, they spend about 14.1 hours from triage to discharge.
About 23 hospitals with poor performing times are receiving $39.5 million for IT enhancements and coaching teams to enhance their operations.
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