Typical Alberta ER visit nearly four hours in 2024: report

The typical emergency room visit in Alberta took nearly four hours last year, according to data released Tuesday.

The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), a Canadian think tank, said time spent in the ER by patients in the province has remained steady year-over-year.

However, the five-year median shows patients across the country are spending more time waiting for emergency medical care now than they were five years ago.

“These long wait times are not just numbers — they represent real Canadians who face delays in receiving critical care that cause needless pain or distress,” said Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI and contributor to the report.

An increase in the five-year median is a sign Canada’s healthcare systems are struggling to give patients timely access to care, she added.

In Alberta, the median time spent by a patient in the ER was three hours and 48 minutes. This has increased by 54 minutes over the past five years.

Across Canada, the median length of stay ranges from two hours and 45 minutes in Newfoundland and Labrador, to five hours and 23 minutes in Quebec, according to MEI. Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia hadn’t provided their media length of stay data at the time of the report’s publication.

Although Alberta is performing better than other provinces, Wittevrongel says residents shouldn’t be satisfied.

“They’re still faced with wait times that are abnormal in many developed countries,” she said. “And it remains important to understand that, even within the province, wait times can vary tremendously.”

The longest median stays in Alberta ERs are in the province’s metropolitan areas; Edmonton had a median stay of five hours and 54 minutes, while Calgary clocked in at four hours and 42 minutes.

The University of Alberta Hospital, in Edmonton, takes home the title of having the longest visits in Alberta, with a median stay of eight hours and 30 minutes in 2024. In the number two and number three spots, respectively, were the Misericordia Community Hospital at seven hours and 54 minutes and the Royal Alexandra Hospital at seven hours and 42 minutes. Both facilities are also in Edmonton.

Report authors, including Wittevrongel, said the solution to long wait times could be abroad, highlighting mixed systems in Europe and France’s independently-operated Immediate Medical Care Centres.