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Wait Times in Ontario

Residents First

 

 

Priorities 1 and 2: Reduce emergency room wait times and alternate level of care days

Each day, hundreds of people who visit Toronto Central LHIN hospitals’ emergency departments end up waiting longer than recommended before they are discharged or admitted. In July 2009, patients who needed to be admitted spent 16.4 hours on average in the emergency department while those not requiring admission waited an average of 4.5 hours.

reduceemergency

 

By acting on these initiatives, we will achieve the following results:
• By the end of three years, most people will be treated in the ER or admitted from the ER within the province’s wait time targets.
• More people will receive timely access to an enhanced range of services that meet their individual needs, particularly those with the highest needs: the frail elderly, people with mental illness and/or addictions and people with complex chronic conditions

Beyond having a potentially negative impact on a patient’s experience and outcomes, long emergency room (ER) wait times are a symptom of problems in other areas of the health care system. One problem in particular that contributes to delays in ER is that many hospital inpatient beds are occupied by “alternate level of care” (ALC) patients waiting to be transferred to a more appropriate setting such as long-term care or home care. In the Toronto Central LHIN, more than 500 patients each day are in hospital waiting to be transferred to another care setting.

How will achieving these priorities transform the Toronto Central LHIN health system?

The changes required to reduce ER wait times and ALC days will address many other problems in the local health system and bring about system-level improvements. These changes will also:

  • Promote equitable access to care by targeting improvements so that those who are most vulnerable and sick get timely access to the care they need.
  • Give the Toronto Central LHIN an opportunity to strengthen relationships with primary care providers, since keeping people healthy is a key strategy for reducing ER wait times.
  • Bring together all parts of the health system to look at collective ways to keep people healthy or enable them to recover more quickly, return to their communities and homes and delay or avoid institutional care when appropriate.