Windsor ER wait times longer than Ontario average, report says

According to a new report comparing hospital wait time across the country, the wait at Windsor Regional's Met campus is about an hour longer than the provincial average.

• Hospital ER times reveal some disturbing waits

The statistics were released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. It's the first time Canadians have the chance to measure their local hospitals against those in other cities and provinces.

At Windsor Regional's Met campus, the average patient would wait four hours and 12 minutes before seeing a doctor. That's also about an hour longer than the Ouellette hospital campus.

CEO David Musyj said the ER is a very busy place, with about 140,000 people coming in to the two Windsor locations each year.

"The numbers are close to 40,000 of those should not be in the emergency department," said Musyj. "They should be seen elsewhere. It's that 'elsewhere' that we've got to continually work on."

Musyj said the time spent with those extra patients increases the wait for others.

"The last thing we want to do is come with excuses why it is, but we do see a dramatic volume at our Met campus, and the wait times for the last four years have actually gone down," he explained.

"So we're heading in the right direction. Do we have more room to get better? Of course we do."

A positive aspect emerging from the report is the low readmission rate at Windsor's hospitals.

"For patients who stay at the hospital, our ultimate return or readmission rate is one of the lowest in Canada," said Musyj. "So you've got to look at the full picture. You can't just focus at the emergency department, because they're doing a thorough job because the readmission rate is so low."