We know it can be scary or overwhelming to visit an emergency department, and you may wait longer than you’d like to receive care. We’re here to care for you and look after you – and all the 2,000 people who visit our emergency departments every day.

This episode goes behind the scenes of our emergency departments to explore the challenges facing them, how patients are triaged and what contributes to wait times. Host Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Dr. Craig Murray, an emergency physician at Surrey Memorial Hospital, and Mary Van Osch, who leads our Emergency Medicine Network.

Chapters
What is an emergency department? – 1:30
Know your care options – 3:30
The triage process – 5:09
Wait times – 6:53
Why are more people visiting emergency departments? – 17:33
What happens when someone is admitted to the hospital? – 26:29
Why you may be asked the same questions many times – 42:01

Guest bios
Dr. Craig Murray is an emergency physician as well as the co-regional medical director and co-regional department head for Emergency Medicine at Fraser Health.

Mary Van Osch is the regional lead for Fraser Health’s Emergency Network.

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.

This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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