Hospital wait times on News1130
Posted June 10, 2013 6:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – You tune in to News1130 to find out about wait times at the border crossings and ferry terminals, so why not at hospital emergency departments?
Dr. Eric Grafstein is the head of ER services for Vancouver Coastal Health and helped develop a website that lets people can see how long of a wait they’re in for at the health region’s emergency rooms.
The site has been live for a few weeks and Grafstein says the response so far has been good. “Taking a look at Google Analytics, there has been about 20,000 users over the first six or seven weeks. I think that’s pretty good; I would like to see broader use.”
He believes it’s vital information for people considering their options.
“How big of a book do you need to bring to the emergency department? A lot of people feel that the wait isn’t as important as the person they see, but I would be interested in going to the place that had the smallest wait, especially if I knew I had a problem that was fairly straightforward.”
So how accurate is the information? We put that question to Grafstein. “It’s a very good question. It’s the question I say to myself every time I hear the border crossing times. The fact is, most of the time they’re very accurate. They’re updated every five minutes.”
He says there is one big factor that influences whether the “estimated” time applies to you:
“We see the sickest patients first, so if it turns out that you have chest pain or your vital signs turn out to be abnormal, your wait is not the wait time that’s posted. That’s an average, and you may be seen immediately.”
News1130 is now broadcasting the estimated wait times at 3:28 p.m., 6:28 p.m., and 8:28 p.m. seven days a week.
The five hospitals included are Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital, Lions Gate Hospital, Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, and Richmond General Hospital. Grafstein believes that eventually, every hospital across the Lower Mainland will have wait times posted online.
You can access the “ED Wait Times” website here.
