Emergency Services

A patient’s wait time starts as soon as they present to the emergency department (ED) and do not end until you are discharge home or admitted.

A patient’s visit is made up of series of small steps such as triage (the nurse assessment of your reason for visit), registration, physician assessment, and treatments. A delay in any of these small steps will increase your wait time. Wait times in ED can be impacted by things that happen in the community and the hospital.

Research has shown the most important wait time is how fast it takes to see a provider (physician or nurse practitioner). The wait time to see a provider will be different for each patient and is based on the urgency of your reason for visit. All patients that present to the emergency department are triaged upon arrival using Canadian Triage Acuity Scale (CTAS) guidelines.  These guidelines determine the level of urgency required for you to see the doctor or nurse practitioner. All non-urgent patients are seen first by a triage nurse. Once you have seen the triage nurse, you may be taken immediately into the Emergency Department or asked to wait in the waiting room.

All urgent patients are seen immediately by a provider. 

The triage nurse will identify your urgency and determine whether you need to be seen in the ED or in the fast track area.

Emergency Wait Times

The most serious patients are seen first (chest pain) and less urgent patients (sore throat, common cold) may wait longer.