Alberta ER visits averaged nearly 4 hours last year, report finds

A new report says patients in Alberta's emergency rooms spent a median time of three hours and 48 minutes per visit last year.

Patients in Alberta’s emergency rooms spent a median time of three hours and 48 minutes per visit last year.

That’s from a new report by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) that shows wait times in the emergency room have not improved over the past year and have become worse over the last five years.

The median length of stay, which is from arrival to discharge, or admission has increased by 54 minutes in Alberta over the past five years.

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Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI, says that Alberta is faring better than some other provinces.

“Despite the fact that Alberta performs better than most Canadian provinces, patients shouldn’t be satisfied,” she said.

“They’re still faced with wait times that are abnormal in many developed countries, and it remains important to understand that, even within the province, wait times can vary tremendously.”

The longest median emergency room stays in Alberta were in the Edmonton region at five hours and 54 minutes and the Calgary region at four hours and 42 minutes.

But it was the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton that had the longest median visits provincially at eight hours and 30 minutes. Two other Edmonton hospitals rounded out the top three worst.

Wittevrongel says that one Maritime province faired the best when it came to wait times.

Newfoundland and Labrador reported the shortest median stay at two hours and 45 minutes, while Quebec had the longest at five hours and 23 minutes.

“In all the provinces, wait times are worse today than they were five years ago, a clear sign that our health-care systems are struggling to provide their patients with timely access to care,” said Wittevrongel.

MEI submitted freedom of information requests to each province seeking information on wait times.

Data for Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia was not available.

The full MEI publication can be accessed online.

The report puts Alberta ahead of most other provinces with available information.

A spokesperson for the province’s Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services provided CTV News with a statement:

“Alberta’s government remains committed to ensuring all Albertans have timely access to health care. As the MEI notes in its release, ‘Despite the fact that Alberta performs better than most Canadian provinces, patients shouldn’t be satisfied.’ We agree—emergency department stays are still too long,” the province said.

“We’re taking action to reduce wait times by adding hospital beds and expanding assisted-living capacity for patients waiting to transition to more appropriate care settings. We’re also increasing the number of family physicians and investing in new urgent care centres across the province to ensure patients have alternatives when emergency care isn’t required.”