Emergency department wait time info at Mississauga hospitals delayed until July

Mississauga’s two hospitals were noticeably absent from information released yesterday (June 16) by the Ontario Ministry of Health detailing emergency department wait times for April 2022 at hospitals across the province.

The information, which includes time spent by patients in ERs waiting to see a doctor and then overall time spent during the ER visit, in addition to other data, was made public on the Health Quality Ontario (HQO) website.

However, no information was included for Mississauga Hospital, Credit Valley Hospital or Queensway Health Centre in Etobicoke, which are run by Trillium Health Partners (THP).

A search of the document for ER information at any of those healthcare sites turned up “no data” messages.

It’s not clear how many other hospitals, if any, failed to have their information included in the latest update on the HQO website.

Graph shows average ER wait time at Mississauga Hospital, by month, compared to the Ontario average. Mississauga Hospital data from April 2022 has yet to be released. (Source: Health Quality Ontario)

In an email to insauga.com, a THP spokesperson said the organization did submit relevant information to HQO, but there was an issue having it included in the latest data released on Thursday.

They added April 2022 ER data for Mississauga, Credit Valley and Queensway hospitals will be posted to the HQO website the first week of July along with numbers from May as well.

“Our most recent report for April 2022 was submitted on time, but required notes of clarification and resubmission, which is part of the monthly verification process. This update was provided to Ontario Health, but missed the online publication window,” the spokesperson said in the email, adding THP provides ER wait time data to Ontario Health each month, similar to other hospitals.

The spokesperson said April 2022 ER wait time data at THP hospitals is similar to numbers from March 2022, when the average wait time at an ER to see a doctor was 1.5 hours at Mississauga Hospital and 2.5 hours at Credit Valley Hospital (1.8 hour average wait time in March across Ontario).

No data was available for the Queensway site.

The numbers released this week by HQO showed the average wait time in April to see a doctor at an ER in Ontario was 1.9 hours (one hour, 54 minutes), tying a record set earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Graph shows average ER wait time at Credit Valley Hospital, by month, compared to the Ontario average. Credit Valley Hospital data from April 2022 has yet to be released. (Source: Health Quality Ontario)

According to HQO, wait times hit the 1.9 hour mark for the third time in the past 14 months. And waits have been climbing steadily each month since January of this year, when average wait times fell to 1.5 hours.

Numbers further show that for Ontario patients considered “low urgency” who did not eventually require admission to hospital, the average time spent in the ER was three hours.

Also, more than three-quarters of patients completed their time in hospital within the provincially-mandated target of four hours.

By comparison, patients considered “high urgency” spent an average of 4.5 hours in hospital, with 90 per cent of them completing their time in the ER within the provincial target of eight hours.

Across the GTA, Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital checked in with the longest average ER wait time in April, at three hours and 30 minutes.

In Toronto, the highest average wait time was at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, at three hours and 18 minutes.

The lowest average wait time in Ontario was recorded at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, at 36 minutes.

On the flip side, the longest wait time in the province was at Windsor Regional Hospital’s Metropolitan Campus, where the average ER patient waited five hours to be seen by a doctor.