Canadians are spending more and more time at the emergency department, every year, according to a new report from the Canada Institute of Health Information.
Trips to the ER are taking an average of 20 to 30 per cent longer in all provinces than three years ago.
This is based on information between April 2023 and March 2024, for the average length of stay.
Length of stay refers to when you check in to the hospital, to when you walk out the door.
For urgent cases, the average stay was four hours.
If less urgent, it was about three hours, and if admitted, the length of stay in an emergency department has gone up five hours to between 10 and 15 hours.
How severe your medical condition is, based on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale.
The average number of ER visits in country was over 15 million.
