Ottawa hospitals exceed provincial average for ER wait times, length of stay

A sign directing visitors to the emergency department at CHEO in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

All five Ottawa hospital emergency rooms exceeded the provincial average for a first assessment by a doctor in December, with the children’s hospital having one of the longest wait times in Ontario.

New statistics from Health Quality Ontario show the average wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in the emergency room across Ontario was two hours in December.

The average wait for a first assessment by a doctor in the ER was 3.7 hours at CHEO in December, down from 4.6 hours in November and 4.3 hours in October.

At the Queensway-Carleton Hospital, the average wait for a first assessment by a doctor was 3.7 hours in December, up from 3.5 hours in November.

Statistics show the average wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in the ER was 2.2 hours at the Ottawa Hospital General Campus (2 hours in November), 2.4 hours at the Montfort Hospital (2.5 hours in November) and 3.3 hours at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (3.6 hours in November).

The Brockville General Hospital had the fourth longest wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in Ontario at 4.2 hours, while the wait for a first assessment was 3.8 hours at the Winchester District Memorial Hospital.

All Ottawa hospitals also exceed the provincial target for the length of stay in the emergency room for low-urgency patients not admitted to hospital. The provincial average was 3.4 hours, and the target time to finish an ER visit is four hours.

The average length of stay for low-urgent patients not admitted to the hospital was 6.4 hours at the Ottawa Hospital General Campus in December, with 33 per cent of patients finishing their ER visit in the target time of four hours. Low-urgent patients not admitted to the ER spent an average of 5.2 hours in the emergency room at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus.

CHEO reported the average length of stay in the ER for low-urgency patients was 5.4 hours in December, with 43 per cent of patients finishing their visit within four hours.

The average length of stay in the ER for low-urgent patients without being admitted to hospital in December was 5.3 hours at the Montfort Hospital and 5.1 hours at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital.

The Kingston General Hospital had the longest average time in the ER without being admitted in Ontario, with low-urgent patients finishing their visit in seven and a half hours. The average length of time for low-urgent patients to stay in the ER at the Brockville General Hospital was 6.7 hours.