Here you will find information about what to expect when visiting our Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centres. You will also learn about our wait times and why it is important to bring your medications with you. Niagara Health has the fourth largest Emergency Program in Ontario, with almost 200,000 patient visits annually to our three Emergency Departments and two Urgent Care Centres.
Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Services open 24/7
St. Catharines Site
1200 Fourth Avenue
St. Catharines
Greater Niagara General Site
5546 Portage Road
Niagara Falls
Welland Site
65 Third Street
Welland
Douglas Memorial Site
230 Bertie Street
Fort Erie
Port Colborne Site
260 Sugarloaf Street
Port Colborne
Walk-in clinic, staffed by a Niagara Health Nurse Practitioner, is located at 176 Wellington Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (excluding holidays)
Updated Monday, December 21
Visiting the Emergency Department or Urgent Care Centre
Effective Monday, Dec. 21, at noon, visitors/care providers can only accompany patients in the Emergency Department (ED) or Urgent Care Centre (UCC) if they are supporting patients:
• In life altering circumstances.
• Experiencing a mental health crisis.
• At end of life.
• Who are vulnerable. This includes those under 18 years of age, cognitive or developmentally delayed, and those with severe language impairment.
Patients and visitors/support people will be screened for COVID-19 per our existing guidelines.
At triage, the nursing staff will assess whether the visitor/support person may accompany a patient in the ED/UCC based on the special circumstances outlined above.
We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may cause. However, these measures are necessary to maintain physical distancing and support everyone’s safety at the hospital.
We recognize that a visit to an Emergency Department can be stressful for you and your family, especially during medical emergencies.
Our healthcare team will serve you as quickly as we can, and we will make every effort to make your visit a positive experience.
Fill out your Personal Emergency Information Card
Niagara Health’s team is committed to providing safe, quality care in a timely manner.
Patients are seen on a priority basis, not on a first-come first-served basis. This ensures the sickest patients get the care they need first — even though they may arrive after other patients.
It is difficult to estimate how long your wait will be because wait times can vary, and change quickly, due to a number of factors, including:
Most people arriving at an ED/UCC will follow these steps:
To evaluate your medical needs, the Triage Nurse will ask you for details about:
The nurse will also check your temperature, pulse or blood pressure during the triage process.
This is because patients have been moved into the Emergency Department and there may not be any more spaces available at the time you arrive.
Patients are seen on a priority basis, not on a first-come first-served basis. A specially trained Triage Nurse, who is located at the front of the Emergency Department, conducts the initial assessment of the patient. Canadian hospitals all use the same triage scale when assessing patients to ensure the most urgent cases are seen first. There are five triage levels, Level 1 being the most critical and No. 5 being non-urgent.
Level 1
Critical — obviously life threatening
Conditions requiring resuscitation, including cardiac arrest, shock and major trauma
Level 2
Emergent — potential threat to life or limb
Examples include asthma, altered mental state, chest pain suggestive of heart problems
Level 3
Urgent — a condition or serious problem requiring emergency intervention
Examples include abdominal pain, mild dehydration, kidney stone or shortness of breath
Level 4
Less Urgent — conditions which because of distress or potential for complications would benefit from intervention
Examples include vomiting and diarrhea with no dehydration, bladder infections, lacerations and earaches
Level 5
Non Urgent — conditions which are non-urgent and/or which might be part of a chronic problem
Examples include sore throat and insect bites
The online wait time reflects the most current estimate of how long it will take from the time you are assessed by a triage nurse in the Emergency Department or Urgent Care Centre until you are first seen by a doctor or nurse practitioner inside the ED/UCC. It does not represent the entire length of your visit.
To diagnose the patient, the physician or nurse practitioner may order bloodwork, X-rays, ultrasound, and other tests, a process that could take several hours to complete. Throughout this period, the patient could expect to see a number of different members of the healthcare team, including lab assistants, medical imaging technologists and respiratory therapists. The Emergency Department physician may also request a consultation with a specialist in cardiology, for example, if the patient is having heart issues, or an orthopedic surgeon for a serious bone break.
The physician or nurse practitioner will review the test results with the patient and discuss suggested next steps in care. It is at this point that the patient will either be discharged, with instructions for follow-up care if required, or admitted to an inpatient unit. About one in eight patients who come to Niagara Health’s Emergency Departments is admitted.
Like other hospitals, Niagara Health cares for a number of patients who may no longer require the resources of the hospital. Many of these patients cannot be safely discharged to another setting without home care or additional services. And some may need different levels of care and wait in hospital beds for space at other healthcare facilities, such as a long-term care home. Delays occur in the EDs as patients continue to be admitted to an inpatient room but have to wait for patients elsewhere in the hospital to be discharged. This impacts movement through the Emergency Department.
When you come to the emergency room or for any hospital or medical visit, be sure to bring:
OHIP covers most hospital services, but there are a few things that are not covered:
If you are not covered by OHIP or your OHIP card has expired, you will be charged for your hospital visit. If you receive any of these services, please see the cashier to make payment before you leave the hospital.