Local hospitals boast best ER wait times in the province: LHIN

Emergency wait times at four local hospitals are the best in Ontario, the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network says.

Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Guelph General Hospital, and Kitchener's Grand River Hospital and St. Mary's General Hospital collectively got top marks in the emergency room pay for results program through the province.

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Karen Bell, senior manager of health system integration at the Waterloo Wellington LHIN, said the province looked at 73 hospitals and their wait times.

Wait times are broken down into increments, such as:

• How long it takes to register for care.
• When a doctor sees you.
• When you leave.

The province then provides reward funding based on those wait times.

Guelph General top performer

While all four hospitals did well, Bell said Guelph ranked among the highest in the province.

"They've implemented certain practices that we all need to take note of and there's been a lot of learning in the system in the last number of years," Bell said of Guelph General.

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All four hospitals have taken a "lean" approach to care, meaning staff attempt to make their jobs more efficient, which benefits both hospital staff and patients.

"It just removes the pieces that are non-value added which means it really doesn't impact the patient," Bell said.

One area where this lean approach is used is for someone awaiting test results. Rather than have them occupy a bed, taking up that space, the patient is moved to a waiting area with chairs.

"It's that simple," Bell said.

Hospitals responding to needs

Dr. Ian Digby, the emergency department physical lead for the LHIN, said since 2013, the number of local emergency room visits has increased.

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So has patient complexity, meaning a patient may be visiting an emergency room with multiple health concerns.

"Despite these challenges, local [emergency departments] have maintained top provincial rank for several wait time metrics," Digby said in a statement from the LHIN. "Simply put, hospitals have responded to 'front door' pressures with improved performance and patient wait times."

'It's a journey'

One of the hospitals in the LHIN had the lowest length of stay ever recorded in Ontario for a patient with complex care needs who went to the emergency department. The patient's stay was 6.98 hours.

When that happens, Bell said she shows how the whole system works together.

"We know at certain times of the year, particularly Christmas and the holiday season and into flu season, we need to have the whole system working on what's called seven-day-a-week flow," she said.

Still, Bell said, it's an evolving process with the end goal always to move patients through the system more quickly.

"It's a journey. This has taken quite a number of years to get to this point," she said. "There needs to be improvement in the emergency department, but also beyond."