Emergency room visits climbed to near pre-pandemic volumes right across the country over the last year according to the latest data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Program Lead of the Clinical Administrative Databases with CIHI, Nicole Loreti, says ER visits rose to almost 14 million in 2021-22, up from 11.7 million the previous year.

The largest increase was among the youngest children, from infants to 4 years old, where volumes almost doubled from 567,000 to more than 1 million.

Loreti says emergency room stays were longer last year than the previous year as well—going up from an average of 33.5 hours to 40.7 hours.

She says their data doesn’t include the factors driving length of stay, but it’s a complex issue with a number of driving factors. Those include the volumes of patients, how sick they are, whether they’re waiting for an inpatient bed, and outside factors including access to primary care, virtual care and long-term care.