What is it and why are we doing it?
This project looks at access to hospitals with 24-hour emergency departments across Canada by estimating how far people need to travel and how long it takes to reach emergency care. In a publicly funded healthcare system, timely access to emergency services is undoubtedly a necessity. In practice, however, access to emergency care can differ widely depending on where people live.
Using publicly available spatial and population data, travel times and distances were estimated from where people live to the nearest hospital with a 24-hour emergency department. This approach allows access to emergency care to be examined consistently across provinces, rather than focusing only on specific regions or health conditions.
By mapping access to emergency departments across Canada, this project helps show where geographic barriers may affect people’s ability to reach urgent care, particularly in rural and remote communities.
What can it be used for?
- Exploring how travel times and distances to emergency departments shape how people actually use healthcare services.
- Comparing access to emergency departments across different levels of rurality
- Identifying communities where longer travel times to emergency care may increase risk during urgent medical situations.
- Informing new health policy by highlighting areas where access to emergency care may be more limited.
- Understanding how geography affects healthcare access and equity in Canada.
This map shows how access to emergency departments varies across Canada. Each point represents a location, and the color reflects the level of access based on travel distance and time to the nearest emergency department, with lighter colors indicating better access and darker colors indicating worse access
For more information on this, please visit:
- https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b7a123924a614d7691accaed564b1fe0
- Link to accepted publication put here.