How do you decide?
Understanding how an Emergency Room works may help you decide if you need to go there. When you arrive, a nurse will speak with you and decide the urgency and level of care you need:
1. Emergency
Heart attack, major trauma, severe head injury, amputation, severe difficulty breathing (due to an allergic reaction or other cause), anytime a patient is unconscious, severe bleeding
2. Urgent
Head injury but still awake, deep cut, foreign body in the eyes or ears, high fever in an infant or toddler, chest pain (not related to a known heart problem), signs of serious infection
3. Less Urgent
Possible fracture/sprain, back pain, skin/wound infection, headaches (migraines)
4. Not Urgent
Colds, minor cuts, bites, sore throat, sinus problems
If you think it’s an emergency or urgent, don’t hesitate!
How long will I wait?
Patients are seen by a doctor in order of need, not time of arrival. Arriving by ambulance does not always mean you will be seen sooner than other patients. How long you wait will depend on:
- how urgently you need care
- how urgently others in the Emergency Room need care
- how busy the Emergency Room is when you arrive
Are there other choices?
- Contact Health Links-Info Santé for answers to questions about common health concerns. This telephone health information service is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by knowledgeable, experienced nurses and free of charge everywhere in Manitoba. Call 788-8200 in Winnipeg or 1-888-315-9257 toll-free elsewhere in the province.
- Your family doctor, local health clinic or Urgent Care Centre (Misericordia Health Centre) may be a better choice than your local emergency room to treat mild or chronic headaches, back pain or stomach pain; minor cuts or burns; colds, sore throat or sinus problems.
- For broken bones, sprains, cuts or bruises, the Pan Am Minor Injury Clinic is open seven days a week (weekdays, 8 am to 8 pm; weekends, 10 am to 6 pm).
What else can I do?
- Ask about your family doctor’s regular office hours and after-hours availability. Your doctor knows your family history best. Many provide 24-hour response to their patients.
- Ensure you and your family have enough prescribed medication over holidays and weekends.
- If you have a chronic illness, keep your regularly scheduled appointments with your doctor. Be sure you understand your doctor’s advice and ask what changes in your condition would require medical attention.
If you’re not sure, call Health Links-Info Santé – staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by registered nurses who can answer your questions.
Call 788-8200 in Winnipeg or toll-free 1-888-315-9257
