Time spent in the emergency department

When you can expect to wait

During your emergency department visit, we track your wait time from check-in to:

• your first assessment
• being sent home or admitted to the hospital (length of your stay)

How data is organized

When you check emergency department wait times, you have access to four different categories of data.

1. Wait time to first assessment by a doctor in emergency for all patients
2. Length of stay in emergency for low-urgency patients not admitted to hospital
3. Length of stay in emergency for high-urgency patients not admitted to hospital
4. Length of stay in emergency for all patients admitted to hospital

Length of stay data includes the time it takes for patients to:

• have any tests (e.g. blood) or exams (e.g. x-ray, CT scan) and for the doctor to get the results
• get a bed in the hospital, if they need to be admitted

Urgency level

To make sure patients in most urgent need get care first, a nurse specially trained in emergency care (called a “triage nurse”) examines you to assess how serious your condition is.

All triage nurses in Canadian hospitals use a standard scale (the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale) to ensure patients are triaged fairly and in the same way across the country.

The data we report is categorized into two urgency levels:

• High urgency – examples of high-urgency conditions include heart attack, overdose, severe allergic reaction
• Low urgency – examples of low-urgency conditions include sore throat, vomiting, headache

Hospital admission

We break down the urgency-level data by whether or not the patient was admitted to the hospital:

• Patients not admitted to hospital – treated and then sent home or to another facility
• Patients admitted to hospital – kept at the hospital for further monitoring or treatment

Example scenarios

Alex fell off a bike and hurt his wrist. At the emergency department, the doctor confirmed his wrist was broken, put on a cast and sent him home.

Data from Alex’s visit would be recorded as:

• Wait time to first assessment by a doctor in the emergency department for all patients – the time they waited to see the doctor after the triage nurse’s assessment
• Length of stay in the emergency department for low-urgency patients not admitted to hospital – the entire time they were in the emergency department from when the triage nurse’s assessment until the doctor sent them home. This includes the time it took for Alex to:
  • be examined by the doctor
  • get an x-ray
  • see the doctor again to get the results of the x-ray and a cast

Betty went to the emergency department because she was having chest pains. The doctor determined that she was having a heart attack and arranged for her to be admitted to the hospital for further treatment.

Data from Betty’s wait would be recorded as:

• Wait time to first assessment by a doctor in the emergency department for all patients – the time she waited to see the doctor after the triage nurse assessed her
• Length of stay in the emergency department for all patients admitted to hospital – the time Betty spent in the emergency department until she was transferred to a hospital bed

What the numbers mean

When you check emergency department wait times, you will have access to different types of data. Here’s a preview of what the measurements mean.

Target time

A target time is the maximum amount of time a patient may spend in the emergency department between arriving and leaving. We established length-of-stay targets based on recommendations from clinical experts.

Trend over time

The trend over time graph shows you how the province and particular hospitals have performed when it comes to wait times over time.

You can adjust the graph by data category (Urgency/Admission) and show either how many patients were seen (“Volume”) or how long they waited and the time spent in the emergency department on average (“Average Time”).

Average wait by hospital

You can see the average number of hours patients spent at a particular hospital. You can compare this wait to other hospitals or the average for the province.

Why some numbers are not available

If you see sections that say “no data,” it could be for a few reasons, such as:

• emergency services aren’t available at the hospital you’ve selected
• the facility is new to reporting and has just started collecting data
• the number of patients seen is too low to report
• there were no patients during the reporting period
• the hospital did not meet the data quality criteria for reporting purposes

See the full list of reasons why some data might not be available.

Things that can affect your wait

A number of circumstances can affect how long you may spend in the emergency department:

When you go – Some days or times of day may be busier than others.

The size and location of the hospital – Large, urban hospitals tend to be busier than small, rural hospitals because they see more patients, including more urgent-need patients.

Unforeseen circumstances – If there is a big accident in the area or an infectious disease outbreak, you may need to wait longer than usual.

Patients with serious or potentially life-threatening health problems – High-urgency patients usually require immediate care. They receive treatment first. This means that low-urgency patients may have to spend more time in the emergency department.

If you need immediate tests or diagnostic imaging – Getting the tests (e.g. blood) or images (e.g. x-ray) and results will add to the total length of your visit.

If you need to be admitted to hospital – You may need to wait until a hospital bed becomes available.

Other ways to get care quickly

Use our Health Connect Ontario search tool to find other ways you might be able to get urgent care in your community such as:

• Urgent care centres
• Walk-in clinics
• Family health teams with extended hours

See emergency department wait times