Those needing to visit the emergency department at the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital will now be able to check the wait time before stepping through the hospital doors. The hospital will be the first site in the North Zone to have the wait times added to the Alberta Health Services website and app.
The wait times posted on the website are a reflection of the information calculated through the AHS software. The wait times are estimates by comparing the hospital’s capacity, along with the number of patients already receiving care in the emergency department and the level of care they need, and the resources that are required to care for those patients. However even with the estimated wait times readily available AHS says they do not count for priority cases, with those who are severely injured or sick being seen right away, while non-urgent patients may have a longer wait time.
Grande Prairie is the latest addition to have its emergency department wait time available online. The hospitals and urgent care facilities in the Calgary Zone were the original facilities to use this system in 2011. Since then the Red Deer Regional Hospital, the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, and Edmonton facilities have been added.