Understanding Emergency Department Wait Times

📖 The Scoop

The amount of time that patients spent in the ED varied according to the severity of their illness, the patients age, how many other patients were being cared for and the time of the day the visit took place. Based on data from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS), which includes demographic, diagnostic and procedural information from hospital EDs in Ontario and selected facil [...] Other reports in the series will build on the information contained in this report, but will focus on: ED care and waits for patients with specific health concerns (scheduled for release in the fall of 2005); and factors that affect waiting times in emergency departments (scheduled for release in the spring of 2006). [...] For example, the excellence of initial first aid, efficiency of trans- portation and energetic treatment of seriously injured patients "have proven to be major factors in the progressive decrease in death rates of battle casualties reaching medical facilities, from 8% in World War I, to 4.5% in World War II, to 2.5% in Korea and to less than 2% in Vietnam."8 Canadian Institute for Health Informati [...] Until the 1970s, those practising emergency medicine in Canada received little or no formal training in the provision of ED care.10 In the early 1970s, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada proposed that emergency medicine programs be developed. [...] In fact, based on the National Physician Survey 2004 a study sponsored by the College of Family Physicians, the Canadian Medical Association, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information almost one quarter (23.5%) of Canada s GP/FPs reported working in EDs in 2003 in some capacity.

Genre: Medical / Allied Health Services / Emergency Medical Services (fancy, right?)