The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is hoping a new feature on its website will help reduce wait times in the city’s emergency departments.
“This information is for the general public,” explains Chief Nursing Officer Lori Lamont. “It’s to help people have access to information so they can make some of the best decisions about where to access care.”
On Wednesday, the WRHA officially launched a wait times feature on its website. It has the number of patients currently waiting for care in Winnipeg’s emergency departments and refreshes every couple of minutes.
“We know that many of the people who wait a long time in our emergency departments because they come with less urgent types of conditions they wait longer than they would want to and longer than they should,” said Lamont.
The website is part of a larger plan by the health authority to treat and discharge at least 90 per cent of patients who don’t need a hospital stay in less than four hours and taking less than eight before someone who needs a bed is in it. The target is set for 2015.
Meantime, some kinks in the system need to be worked out according to patients who spoke with Global News.
Angela Fox remembers her waiting room experience, “it was horrible. i was in so much pain.” Fox waited five hours for treatment of a stomach infection though the posted time on the wait room screen was much shorter. The same technology that feeds the estimated wait time posted in wait rooms feeds the website too.
“It said on the tv, ‘two and a half hours before you get to see a doctor,’ and i waited five hours,” explains Fox.
Lamont says the wait times can change often as emergency rooms do fluctuate.
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