'Alternate environments': WRHA wanting to reduce wait times at children's hospital, promote other options

With long wait times plaguing health-care services across Winnipeg, parents are being asked to consider other options before taking their children to the Health Sciences Centre’s (HSC) children’s emergency department.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority released information on Thursday about wait times at Winnipeg hospitals, and said children’s emergency reported an average of 139.5 patients per day in September, an increase of nearly 11 per cent from the same time last year.

“We know about 50 per cent of families and children that present at the Children's emergency department, their needs can be met in altered environments. So there's going to be more messaging about what those alternate environments can be to be able to support our kids in need,” said Dr. Shawn Young, chief operating officer at HSC.

The WRHA is asking parents to visit Shared Health’s website before heading to an emergency department. Last month, the organization announced it would expand hours at several Walk-In Connected Care Clinics in an attempt to reduce wait times at city hospitals.

“The challenges we're seeing are not because there are more people coming to hospital than there were previously, It's that we're lacking the ability to move them through the acute care system into less acute environments, and even back into home with home care supports, or even into long term care,” Young said.

“So all of our efforts are, are on improving the flow through the health-care system.”

According to the most recently released numbers, patients at HSC Children’s hospital were waiting a median time of 1.93 hours, down from 2.25 hours in August.

All of Winnipeg’s hospitals had a median wait time of 3.08 hours, down from 3.23 in August. Concordia Urgent Care has the highest median wait time of 3.97 hours, followed by the St. Boniface Emergency Department at 3.93 hours.