A 77-year-old Lloydminster man went to the city’s hospital emergency department with chest pain radiating down both arms and waited more than two hours before leaving, unaware he was having a heart attack.
The man said he arrived at Lloydminster Hospital around 12:15 p.m. on Aug. 15 and reported his symptoms at admitting.
He said he waited more than two hours without being seen. When his pain eased, he told a nurse he was leaving and went home.
An hour later, his symptoms returned and he went back to the hospital. He said staff checked his vitals three times and drew blood while he waited in the emergency area.
He said he was finally taken into the emergency room just after 10 p.m., roughly 10 hours after he first arrived. He was told he had suffered a heart attack and had Type 2 diabetes, a diagnosis he said he had no prior knowledge of.
He was airlifted to Sturgeon Hospital in St. Albert, Alta., where he remained as of Aug. 18, awaiting an emergency angioplasty.
“Chest pains complaint at Lloydminster Hospital does not trump other less serious health concerns,” the man wrote in a message describing his experience.
BorderPulse contacted the Saskatchewan Health Authority with questions about his case, including what standard triage level is given to patients with chest pain, how many emergency room doctors were on duty and how many patients were seen in the hours surrounding his visit.
David Freeman, lead media relations specialist with the SHA’s community engagement and communications team, said the Lloydminster Hospital emergency department treated 78 patients on Saturday, Aug. 15, with an average length of stay of about six and a half hours. Sixteen patients were triaged at the department between noon and 2:30 p.m. that day.
The emergency department’s overall patient volume that day averaged just over three patients an hour. By comparison, 16 patients were triaged in the two and a half hour window that included the man’s arrival, a rate of more than six patients an hour, more than double the day’s average.
The SHA did not say whether that higher volume affected wait times for patients triaged during that window.
The SHA said emergency departments operate on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, which assesses and treats patients based on urgency, with the most immediate needs seen first.
“We acknowledge waiting can be frustrating and assessments can take time,” Freeman said. “It is important patients await the outcome of any diagnostic measures, such as blood work, undertaken during triage and continued assessment before they leave an emergency department.”
Chest pain radiating down both arms is generally assigned a CTAS Level 2, or “emergent,” classification. Under national CTAS guidelines, Level 2 patients are meant to be seen by a physician within 15 minutes, 95 per cent of the time.
Under the same guidelines, only patients triaged at Level 1, the most urgent category, are meant to be seen ahead of a Level 2 patient.
The SHA did not say what triage level the man was assigned when he arrived, or how many of the 16 patients triaged in that window were at a higher acuity level than his, leaving open whether his wait time was consistent with how the triage system is designed to work.
Freeman also did not answer questions about how many emergency room doctors were on duty at the time, or what other emergencies might have taken precedence.
“We remain committed to addressing capacity pressures and improving access to care for residents of Saskatchewan,” the SHA said. The authority said it is working to return patients to their home locations when possible and improve patient flow through hospitals.
The SHA said anyone requiring urgent or emergency care should continue to call 911 or present to the emergency department.
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