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New website tracks ER wait times, quality of care

Jan 31, 2017 | 2:16 PM

EDMONTON – Albertans can now view emergency room wait times and find out the overall quality of care at 16 emergency rooms across the province.

The Health Quality Council of Alberta says its website is designed to make access to emergency room information easy for health-care providers, decision-makers and the public.

The website can be found at http://focus.hqca.ca.

Much of the information is already publicly accessible, but the council says it’s important to bring all the data into one easy-to-use website. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital is among the hospitals with data available to view.

The website uses simple graphs and colourful icons to help users track down information in 18 categories, including how long to see an emergency room doctor, number of people who leave an emergency room without seeing a doctor, and overall quality of care.

The council says they hope people will recognize areas that are performing well, have conversations about how to improve, and that measures will improve over time through that process.