Your trip to the emergency department is taking longer every year: report

Trips to the emergency department are costing Canadians more time every year, according to a new report.

Trips to the emergency department are costing Canadians more time every year, according to a new report.

Compared to three years ago, trips take an average of 20 to 30 per cent longer across Canada, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Its new report on emergency department visits and lengths of stay shows that the time between registration and discharge has gone up in every province.

"Length of stay" measures the time interval between the earlier of triage time or registration time and the time when a patient leaves the emergency department. The data is separated by severity — "more urgent" visits are categories one, two or three on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale. "Less urgent" visits fall under categories four or five.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, the median length of stay across Canada for more urgent cases was 4.1 hours, meaning 50 per cent of visits were 4.1 hours or shorter. That's up 21 per cent compared to 2020–21, when visits were 3.4 hours.

For less severe cases, the median length of stay was 2.7 hours this past year, 35 per cent longer than the two hours it took in 2020–21.

For those admitted to hospital, the median stay has gone up five hours, from 10.7 to 15.7 — though the number in 2023–24 is down from 16.5 hours the year prior.

The total number of emergency department visits went up about 350,000 last year to about 15.5 million. That's also up around 1.5 million visits from two years ago.