The Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie is now posting wait times to their website.
Those visiting the health centre will be able to see how long it will take to see an emergency doctor, before even arriving.
The information provided includes how many patients are currently waiting, how many have seen a doctor and approximately how long the wait time will be.
The website also shows a graph depicting when the emergency department will be the busiest within the next six hours and provides patients with a list of walk-in clinics, and urgent-care clinics in the area.
“The RVH has one of the busiest EDs in the province, averaging 220-250 patients a day. We are also experiencing unprecedented patient volumes and are well over 110 per cent capacity every day,” RVH president and CEO Janice Skot said in a statement.
The decision to post wait times is in an effort to manage community expectations, and to improve patient experience at the hospital.
Hospital officials note that due to the need to see the sickest patients first and other contributing factors, wait times posted to the hospital’s website are not guaranteed and are subject to change at any time.