Busy ER departments leading to added healthcare costs and workloads: University of Alberta study

Emergency room doctors in Edmonton and across the country are sounding the alarm about the dire state of ER wait times.

“Anywhere from two to seven hours depending on which emergency department you are going to and currently I’ve seen wait times across the country even approaching 18 to 20 hours,” said pediatric emergency physician Dr. Rod Lim.

“We’re seeing emergency departments closed and we’re seeing wait times reach dangerous levels across the country,” emergency physician Dr. David Carr added.

A new University of Alberta study finds those busy emergency rooms have led to higher costs because of the need for additional care after the initial emergency room visit.

“As they get busier they have less time to spend with the patient directly,” said study author and U of A business professor Mohamad Soltani. “As an alternative, what they do is they order more tests that can be helpful in diagnosing the case.”

Compounding the problem is a shortage of staff such as nurses, resulting in greater workloads for those frontline staff in the ER.

But Soltani stresses there are things patients can do to alleviate some pressure.

“For the patient side, we propose that the next time you are going to the emergency room, just give it a second thought,” Soltani said.

“Do you really need to go to emergency room? Or do you have some other channels where you can seek care?”

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Edmonton ER doctor Warren Thirsk said more robust changes are needed in the health-care system.

“We need better planning, we need to admit that we have run the system too lean, we need to come up with plans that take into account the crux of the health-care system as people, so its people who look after people,” Thirsk said.

He said these wait times and staffing shortages are the worst he’s ever seen and health-care professionals and patients end up paying the price.

“Knowing that we can’t help people like we were trained to do — like we would want our family members to be looked after — is painful to see day after day,” Dr. Thirsk said.