Emergency room wait times in Alberta get worse, health council says

CALGARY - Wait times at Alberta's busiest emergency departments continue to worsen, despite efforts by the province's medical superboard to cut delays for patients, says a new report by the Health Quality Council of Alberta.

The report released Monday surveyed nearly 5,000 patients and found their overall length of stay in emergency wards increased significantly in March 2009 from a similar study conducted two years earlier.

For example, the latest report found 42 per cent of patients said it took them more than two hours to see a doctor, up from 38 per cent in 2007.

"When people go to the emergency department, it's taking longer for the emergency crew and the emergency team to actually see them," said Dr. John Cowell, chief executive of the council, an independent agency that promotes patient safety.

"It was a surprise and a disappointment. One would have hoped that Alberta Health Services would have been able to solve some of these problems."

The survey found a number of medical measures that show the situation is deteriorating.

Patients who were discharged after treatment waited an average of 3.6 hours in 2009 -- up from 3.4 hours two years earlier.

The overall length of stay for those who were admitted to hospital jumped to 14.4 hours from 11.1 hours during the same period.

In fact, almost half of all patients (48 per cent) reported their length of stay exceeded 12 hours, up sharply from 39 per cent two years earlier.

Superboard officials said they aren't surprised by the data, but cautioned it is almost a year old.

"Although we have been doing a lot of work, the results are far from where they need to be," said Dr. Chris Eagle, an executive vice-president for Alberta Health Services.

"We've been putting a lot of effort into improving and changing the system since then."

Dr. Grant Innes, head of emergency medicine for Calgary's hospitals, said escalating wait times are an issue across the country.

"We know there are serious problems, we know we are not hitting the targets that we want to hit," Innes said, noting the board is working on ways to reduce the stress on emergency departments.

"We've got some evidence that we are at least getting a little bit better."

Patients at the Peter Lougheed Hospital emergency department on Monday evening said the waits aren't getting any better.

"It's never an in-and-out procedure," said 53-year-old Sheila McCourt, who noted she waited for 13 hours in a hallway last April before needing to have her gall bladder removed.

Another patient, Peter Plum, said he's left the ward after waiting for eight hours without treatment.

"That's scary, because one of those times there could be something really wrong," he said. "I don't know if it's a planning problem or a doctor problem or a nurse problem, but something is not working."

And the head of the health quality council suggested the survey's results show the superboard -- which replaced nine regional health authorities in 2008 -- hadn't seen any significant improvements in wait times during its first year of operation.

As an example, patients waited 95 minutes to see a doctor in March 2009 -- up significantly from 77 minutes in the earlier survey.

Still, patients' overall rating of care has been maintained, despite the increased wait times, which is "a credit to emergency department staff," the report concluded.

Across the province, 65 per cent of people questioned rated their overall care in emergency as excellent or very good, unchanged from two years earlier.

Dr. Linda Slocombe, president of the Calgary and Area Physicians Association, said while doctors and nurses often rise to the challenge, emergency room waits are taking a toll on everyone.

"We haven't seen any improvements in wait times for years," Slocombe said. "I don't see how they can get better until we have more beds to put patients into."

Hospital officials agreed the numbers reflect a bed crunch throughout the city's hospitals and the local long-term care system.

The issue, however, could be partially addressed in the provincial budget after Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky asked the superboard to halt, in the interim, its plan to close about 150 Calgary hospital beds and 140 in Edmonton.

On Monday, Zwozdesky said the superboard's move last week to collect more health data will also help deal with emergency room wait times.

"Suffice to say, it is absolutely critical for us to address this," he said in an interview.

Liberal Leader Dr. David Swann said the province is spending roughly the right amount of public dollars on health care, but the $13-billion system is poorly administered by the Stelmach government.

"We don't feel this government understands management of the health-care system," Swann said, noting the province should more frequently consult with health-care professionals.

The health quality council's survey was mailed to 10,917 Albertans who visited emergency departments last March, with half completing and returning the survey.

Its margin of error is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points, 19 times out 20.

With files from Jason Fekete and Deborah Tetley

cderworiz@theherald. canwest.com