Hospital wait times drop by 25 per cent, report shows

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WINNIPEG hospitals are experiencing substantial improvements in emergency department wait times, prompting Manitoba’s health minister to conclude the government’s controversial reforms are working.

A new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows emergency room patients who were admitted to hospital saw their waits for a bed drop by 25 per cent last year.

The wait by Winnipeg ER patients to see a physician for an initial assessment — while still second-longest in the country — fell 13.7 per cent in 2017-18, bucking a national trend.

“It shows that the path that we’re on in Manitoba… is working,” Health Minister Cameron Friesen said Wednesday.

Greg Webster, director of acute and ambulatory care information services with CIHI, said local hospitals are showing a “marked improvement” in ER waits.

“The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has made significant improvements on a year-over-year basis, in particular for their admitted patients,” he said.

In 2017-18, 90 per cent of patients who were admitted to a city hospital spent less than 32.6 hours in the emergency department, which was slightly better than the national average (33.1 hours).

Lori Lamont, WRHA acting chief operating officer, told a media briefing Wednesday she could not recall the last time Winnipeg hospitals beat the national average in that important efficiency indicator.

She also credited the massive hospital reorganization initiated last year by the provincial Tory government for the improvements.

Lamont said while ER wait times have levelled off in recent months, she expects greater progress will be made once Phase 2 of the reorganization plan kicks-in next year.

Winnipeg emergency departments record an average of about 900 patients a day.

For most patients who spend long hours waiting for an initial assessment by a doctor, the improvements highlighted by the national report officially released Thursday (media received the information under embargo Wednesday) will be cold comfort.

Only Prince Edward Island among reporting provinces (Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland data are not tracked by CIHI) had longer ER waits than Manitoba last year. On average, it took 4.4 hours for 90 per cent of patients (90th percentile) to see a physician. The national average wait was far shorter (3.2 hours).

“What we’ve seen this year for the first time is substantial improvement,” Lamont said of the report, adding the gains have extended into the current fiscal year.

The WRHA official said the timing of Phase 2 of the Winnipeg hospital overhaul remains on track. Among the remaining changes are the closure of Concordia Hospital’s ER (and the opening of a walk-in clinic at the facility) in June, and the conversion of the Seven Oaks General Hospital ER to an urgent care centre in September.

Where, more than a year ago, there were six hospital emergency rooms, there will only be three by next fall: Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital and Grace Hospital.

Hospital officials are betting three fully staffed ERs around the clock will be more efficient than six, as several had operated at less-than-full capacity at some times of the day.

In 2014-15, 90 per cent of Winnipeg ER patients saw a doctor within 5.7 hours. In 2015-16, that dropped to 5.5 hours, and in 2016-17, it fell again to 5.1 hours.

Last year, ER waits fell at all city hospitals, except for Children’s Hospital, where the wait stayed at 3.3 hours (90th percentile), which is around the national average.

Within Winnipeg, waits were longest at Concordia (5.7 hours for nine out of 10 patients to be seen by a doctor), Grace (4.9 hours), and St. Boniface (4.6 hours).

Health Sciences Centre, which sees an average of 190 to 200 patients in its adult emergency room per day, the most of any Manitoba hospital, had waits of 4.5 hours.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca