Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) is making it easier to know how long you may have to wait to see a doctor when you come to the hospital’s emergency department (ED).
PRHC has launched a new online ED wait-time clock that provides a real-time estimate of the average wait time to see a doctor, along with the number of patients waiting to see a doctor, the number of patients waiting for an inpatient bed, and the number of patients currently in the ED.
The online clock at prhc.on.ca/healthcare-services/ed-wait-times/ also provides graphs showing the typical wait times at different times of the day and on different days during the week.
“Patients and families are already experiencing stress and uncertainty when they come to the ED,” says PRHC’s chief of emergency medicine Dr. Nicole De Francesco in media release. “By sharing wait time information in real time, we’re making a difficult moment a bit easier for people, improving their hospital experience by providing more and better communication to help them understand what they can expect.”
The online clock, which is updated every 30 minutes, reflects all ED patients who have checked in or been triaged, including people who have pre-registered, walked in, or arrived by ambulance.
The hospital notes that patients in the ED are always seen in order of medical priority rather than by arrival time, with those having more serious conditions always treated first. Wait times can also change quickly and unexpectedly due to new or more urgent emergencies, including sudden high-volume incidents.
With a new patient arriving at PRHC’s ED every seven minutes (more than 75,000 visits annually), Dr. De Francesco says the hospital has been working over the past few years to reduce wait times, hospital admissions, and patient length-of-stay.
Although these efforts have resulted in “incredible successes,” Dr. De Francesco notes they have been offset by increases in patient volumes, complexity, and acuity.
“In other words, while the work has had excellent results, the improvements the team has made are helping us to manage the growth we’ve been seeing, but not to get ahead of the curve,” Dr. De Francesco says. “Our work in these priority areas will continue as we invest in new initiatives to improve the care we provide.”
