ER visits in Nova Scotia down more than 9% for less serious cases

Measures put in place to ease the pressure on Nova Scotia's overburdened emergency departments seem to be having a positive effect, a legislature committee heard Wednesday.

Derek Spinney, vice-president of corporate services at Nova Scotia Health, told the public accounts committee that fewer people showed up at hospital ERs seeking non-urgent or less-urgent care last year.

He called the 9.2 per cent drop — a difference of more than 18,000 patients — "extraordinary." 

"We're achieving that through many different ways, whether it be a chat bot, whether it be through virtual care, whether it be through urgent treatment centres that we've opened, the mobile care clinics, the expanded scope of the pharmacies — all of these things are having a total impact," Spinney told the committee. "How much is any one of those things having on that number? I'm not sure.

"I just know that the total number is actually declined 9.2 per cent."

Between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023, there were 528,946 emergency department visits at hospitals across Nova Scotia. During the same period in the last fiscal year, which ended March 31, there were 522,956 visits — an overall decrease of 1.1 per cent.

Small overall drop in ER visits

According to figures supplied by Nova Scotia Health, there were 181,547 cases involving non-urgent or less-urgent conditions handled in ERs from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, compared to 199,852 during the same period in 2022-23.

The urgency of cases in emergency rooms is defined by the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS), with levels 1 and 2 for the severest of cases and levels 4 and 5 for less urgent and minor ailments.

Nova Scotia Health year-over-year emergency department visits:

Spinney said the drop in visits is proof the alternative treatment options are working.

"All of those things are culminating [with] Nova Scotians being able to choose differently where they get their care," Spinney told reporters following the committee meeting. "And we're seeing those lower acuity cases reduce at a time when the population is growing."

That growth in population, according to Spinney, resulted in a 9.7 per cent increase in the number of seriously ill or badly injured people needing emergency care last year.

Between April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, there were 10,524 more patients triaged at levels 1 and 2, for a total of 118,673 cases, compared to the same period in 2022-23. 

There were 1,791 more patients triaged at Level 3, which is still considered urgent, between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, for a total of 222,736 cases, compared to the same period in 2022-23.