Why Wait?
ED Redirect Program: Helping to Reduce Wait Times
We must all work together to reduce the wait times in the Emergency Department. One of the ways we will be doing this is through our Emergency Department Community Redirect Program.
Once you arrive at the Emergency Department and have been assessed by the triage nurse, a decision will be made to either keep you or offer to schedule an appointment at another health-care facility in the community (i.e. your family doctor or a local After-Hours/Walk-In Clinic) for either the same day or within 24 hours. These decisions are based on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS). If you are assessed as non-urgent by the triage nurse, you may be offered a redirection.
The goal of the Redirect Program is NOT to prevent you from seeing an Emergency Department doctor, but to help prioritize the severity of the illness or injury and prevent patients from waiting longer than they have to.