Your trip to the emergency department is taking longer every year: report

Trips to the emergency department are costing Canadians more time every year, according to a new report.

Compared to three years ago, trips take an average of 20 to 30 per cent longer across Canada, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Its new report on emergency department visits and lengths of stay shows that the time between registration and discharge has gone up in every province.

“Length of stay” measures the time interval between the earlier of triage time or registration time and the time when a patient leaves the emergency department. The data is separated by severity — “more urgent” visits are categories one, two or three on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale. “Less urgent” visits fall under categories four or five.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, the median length of stay across Canada for more urgent cases was 4.1 hours, meaning 50 per cent of visits were 4.1 hours or shorter. That’s up 21 per cent compared to 2020–21, when visits were 3.4 hours.

For less severe cases, the median length of stay was 2.7 hours this past year, 35 per cent longer than the two hours it took in 2020–21.

For those admitted to hospital, the median stay has gone up five hours, from 10.7 to 15.7 — though the number in 2023–24 is down from 16.5 hours the year prior.

The total number of emergency department visits went up about 350,000 last year to about 15.5 million. That’s also up around 1.5 million visits from two years ago.

And in every province with available data, the duration of emergency department visits has also gone up.

Times have risen particularly sharply in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.

In Manitoba, depending on the urgency of the case, times have increased between 47 and 57 per cent over the past three years.

And in Prince Edward Island, the median stay for a less urgent visit is nearly five hours, almost double the mediantime in Canada. Overall, visits in the province take 53 to 81 per cent longer compared to 2020–21.

“Length of stay” starts when a patient checks in and ends when they leave, so the number includes the time spent getting treated, as well as the time waiting to see a medical professional.

The data doesn’t separate wait times from treatment times, though many provinces list live estimates for emergency department wait times, or data showing wait time averages.

Ontario, for example, lists an average wait time of two hours for the month of June 2024, with average lengths of stay of 3.1 and 4.6 hours for low- and high-urgency cases, respectively.

Winnipeg updates live wait times for its emergency departments, where the time to see a physician or nurse practitioner is often at least eight hours long. Data on wait times can also be found for British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

See here for a snapshot of average emergency department wait times in these locations from 2023.