Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) Emergency Department launches online wait-time clock
Patients and families can now see wait times in advance to help them know what to expect in the Emergency Department
Peterborough, ON – Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) is pleased to announce that patients and families can now access an online Emergency Department (ED) wait-time clock providing real-time estimates for how long it may take to be seen by a physician.
“Patients and families are already experiencing stress and uncertainty when they come to the ED,” said Dr. Nicole De Francesco, Chief of Emergency Medicine at PRHC. “By sharing wait time information in real time, we’re making a difficult moment a bit easier for people, improving their hospital experience by providing more and better communication to help them understand what they can expect.”
PRHC’s ED sees more than 75,000 visits annually – this means a new patient arrives in the Emergency Department every seven minutes. Pressures on the Emergency Department have continued to grow over the last decade, with rising demand for emergency services outpacing capacity.
“Our team in the Emergency Department has worked hard over the last few years on initiatives to reduce wait times, hospital admissions, and patient length-of-stay,” said Dr. De Francesco. “With the support of leaders and staff across the hospital, these efforts have achieved incredible successes – which have largely been absorbed by the system pressures we are experiencing in terms of patient volumes, complexity and acuity.”
“In other words: while the work has had excellent results, the improvements the team has made are helping us to manage the growth we’ve been seeing – but not to get ahead of the curve,” added Dr. De Francesco.
The online ED wait-time clock supports transparency, reduces uncertainty, and empowers patients with timely information. The clock can be viewed on the hospital’s website at prhc.on.ca/healthcare-services/ed-wait-times/ before and during a hospital visit to see up-to-date information on how long it may take to be seen by a physician for an initial assessment.
A reminder that patients in the emergency department are always seen based on the urgency of their condition according to the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS), and not their time of arrival.
Information about alternative options for non-emergency care in the community is provided on the hospital’s website here: prhc.on.ca/healthcare-services/emergency-department/
About Peterborough Regional Health Centre
- With 500 inpatient beds, PRHC is a regional acute care referral centre serving one of the fastest-growing and aging populations in Canada, extending north to Haliburton, south to Northumberland, east to Quinte, and west to Durham.
- A new patient arrives at PRHC’s Emergency Department every seven minutes.
- PRHC is working to meet the growing demand for care in our community and region. With the support of generous donors through the PRHC Foundation, we aim to empower world-class care, closer to home, fuel innovation and bring new, lifesaving services to our region, attract the best and brightest healthcare professionals, and find solutions to critical hospital challenges. Find out more about the Campaign for PRHC here: https://prhcfoundation.ca/an-update-on-the-progress-of-the-70-million-campaign-for-prhc/
