Stay in the Emergency Departments

This section reports the time spent in the emergency department (ED) by patients that are placed on a stretcher.

A stretcher patient can be defined as any person registered in the ED who requires a stretcher because of their medical or psychosocial condition. The Ministry of Health has set a priority to reduce the average length of stay in EDs.

Note: Hospitals function according to an annual calendar composed of 13 periods ("P" in graphs) starting April 1st of each year.

Adult Sites

The Ministry has set provincial targets for length of stay for each patient type visiting the ED such as;

  • Admitted patients
  • Non-admitted patients
  • Patients over 75 years old
  • Patients under 75 years old

To simplify, the internal target is an average of provincial targets.

The next three graphs show the average length of stay in hours for patients on stretchers. It should be noted that the Montreal Neurological Hospital and Montreal Chest Institute do not have an emergency department. The Royal Victoria Hospital ED services these two sites.

Source: MEDURGE

Analysis: The Royal Victoria Hospital’s average length of stay in ED for patients on stretchers increased until period 3 of 2011-12. This situation was corrected as of period 4. It is now stable around the regional average.

 

Source: MEDURGE

Analysis: The average length of stay of patients on stretchers in the MGH emergency department continues to be below the regional average by about 5 hours.

 

Source: SIURGE

Analysis: The average length of stay of patients on stretchers in the Lachine Campus emergency department increased at the beginning of this year. Although an increased length of stay was seen until period 5, the status is now closer to the regional average.

 

Actions: 

Several initiatives have been taking place in the EDs across the MUHC and in the community in order to better address the needs of the population while reducing delays.

The MUHC is actively working on its overcrowding challenges through:

  • Improvements in admission strategies and discharge planning
  • Analysis of the needs of clients returning to the ED frequently

 

Pediatric Site 

For our pediatric hospitals, the patients on stretchers are called “patients under observation”. The following graph shows the trend over the years.

Source: SIURGE

Analysis: The average length of stay of patients under observation at the MCH emergency department continues to be shorter than the provincial target of 11 hours. The average length of stay is stable across all periods.

 

Actions: Efforts are continuously made to ensure minimal wait time for our pediatric population and to maintain this good performance.