At Stevenson, we are aware of the frustration that patients and families experience when they face lengthy wait times while waiting to be seen in our Emergency Department.

How Are We Doing?
Your Role in Reducing Wait Times

Why the Wait?

Like the majority of hospitals across the country, Stevenson uses the Canadian Triage Acuity Scale to “triage” or assess patients based on the extent of their injury or illness. Patients are assigned a triage level of 1-5, where Level 1 requires immediate, urgent care (potential loss of life or limb) and Level 5 require non-urgent attention (illness and ailments that can be treated by a family physician). 

Patients are NOT treated on a first-come, first-come basis. Instead, they are seen based on their level of need. Although this system can lead to long waits for some patients, it remains the safest and most effective way to deliver care within a busy Emergency Department.  To learn more about CTAS, visit the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians website at www.caep.ca and search “CTAS”.

Wait Time Funding

As part of the Ontario government’s Wait Time Funding strategy, also known as Pay For Results, hospitals are required to meet and/or exceed pre-defined targets aimed at reducing the amount of time people spend waiting in the Emergency Department. Target timeframes are intended to ensure that people are seen relative to the urgency of their needs.  Failure to achieve these targets could potentially result in the loss of funding received by the province. 

For more information about Government of Ontario’s Wait Time Funding strategy, please click here.

The four key targets timeframes identified by Ontario Government are: