Alberta is aiming to take the guesswork out of hospital emergency department wait times with a new online tool that allows patients to gauge the lineup before heading to the ER.
The website, which went live on Wednesday, currently covers six hospitals and urgent care centres in Calgary.
The project, however, is expected to roll out across the province in the next couple of years.
The website estimates the average wait-time for a patient that is seriously, but not severely ill. Officials say it is accurate to within one hour, 75 per cent of the time.
"It's not perfect, but it's a ballpark," Alberta regional chief of emergency medicine Dr. Grant Innes told Â鶹´«Ã½.
The website lets patients decide where to go for their health care, Innes said.
"We have to give patients some credit that they can make intelligent decisions about (how) sick they are."
To calculate the times posted online, software takes into account several factors including: the number of patients waiting to be seen, how sick they are and how many doctors are available at a particular time.
According to Dr. Chris Simpson, who chairs the "Wait Time Alliance" of national medical specialty societies, the program is a tremendous advancement in the province's healthcare system.
"In fact, it may be the first in Canada," Simpson told Â鶹´«Ã½, explaining that the website is part of a five-year plan by the Alberta government and the province's health authority to improve access and reduce wait times.
On the day of the site's launch, it generated 6,000 visitor hits between 10 a.m. and midnight.
With files from CTV Alberta Bureau Chief Janet Dirks
