The Saint John Regional Hospital is seeking ways to reduce the high number of patients who leave the emergency room without being seen by a physician.

Roughly eight per cent of people who walk into the Saint John hospital's emergency room leave before they are treated, which is almost double the Canadian average.

'We in Saint John actually have one of the highest walkout rates in the country …so there's something going on and we need to look at that.'— Dr. Paul Atkinson

Dr. Paul Atkinson, the hospital's new director of emergency medicine research, said he suspects people are leaving because they are waiting too long to be seen by a doctor.

So Atkinson said the hospital wants to find ways to keep people from leaving the hospital before they are treated.

"What interventions can we make here in emergency care that will mean patients' total time in the emergency department is reduced without affecting the quality of their care: is there something simple we can do to speed up their care?" Atkinson said.

Atkinson doesn't have statistics on current wait times because they're collected manually and take too long to compile.

But he said, historically, the emergency room hasn't been meeting national guidelines.

Patient survey

Atkinson said he suspects most patients who walk out have minor problems that can be dealt with somewhere else, such as an after-hours clinic.

The hospital plans to survey people who leave the E-R.

Also, a study is planned to see whether sending patients for tests while they're waiting to see a doctor shortens their total wait times. The hospital official is working on new protocols for what types of tests should be ordered, based on certain symptoms. Atkinson said he hopes to have some results in about six months.

Meanwhile, the hospital is developing a new information system to track wait times, which should be ready when the new emergency department opens this winter.

Studying the reasons behind the high walk-out rates is just another item on Atkinson's growing research list. Atkinson was recently hired as the director of emergency medicine research.

His arrival comes only a few years after the hospital's ER doctors had threatened to resign due to understaffing and overcrowding.

The New Brunswick government handed out a $19-million contract in September 2009 to expand the hospital's emergency department. The construction should be completed later this year.