BACKGROUND Providing emergency department (ED) wait time information to the public has been suggested as a mechanism to reduce lengthy ED wait times (by enabling patients to select the ED site with shorter wait time), but the effects of such a program have not been evaluated. We evaluated the effects of such a program in a community with two ED sites. METHODS Descriptive statistics for wait t...

E362 CMAJ, September 8, 2015, 187(12) ©2015 8872147 Canada Inc. or its licensors Dr. Eric Howatt describes his office as the “the crying clinic.” The orthopedic surgeon and chief of surgery at Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, Nova Scotia, has the onerous task of explaining to patients why their wait times for hip or knee replacements are routinely three times the national benchmark: 18 mo...