One in 10 Alberta Hospital Beds Occupied by Patients Awaiting Alternate Care, Report Finds
A new report from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) reveals that one in 10 hospital beds in Alberta are occupied by patients waiting for alternate levels of care, such as home care or continuing care. These patients, often elderly, no longer require hospital-level treatment but remain in acute-care beds due to a lack of available spaces elsewhere. According to the report, this bottleneck contributes to longer emergency room wait times, staff burnout, and significant costs—up to $1,200 per patient daily.
“As it stands, roughly one in 10 hospital beds in the province are occupied by patients stuck in the wrong departments due to a lack of space,” said Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI and author of the report. “This phenomenon is an immense drain on hospital resources and contributes to patients’ very long waits in Alberta’s emergency rooms.”
In 2024, between nine and 16 per cent of hospital beds in Alberta’s seven largest population centres were occupied by patients needing alternate levels of care, according to government data. On average, 1,500 acute-care beds were occupied daily by these patients, creating a bottleneck that prevents the treatment of four ER patients per hour for every bed occupied.
The report highlights that an average of 4,760 Albertans per year were stuck in hospital beds while waiting for spaces in continuing care facilities in recent years, while another 3,135 waited for home care services, with half of them spending 13 days or longer in hospitals.
Faubert argues that improving access to home care and continuing care facilities is key to solving the issue. “While Alberta has been adding new continuing care and home care spaces, it has not been able to do so fast enough,” she said. “The province could speed things up by removing hurdles that prevent non-governmental care providers from filling this gap.”
The report also points to successful models in Germany and the Netherlands, where informal home care services have improved access and reduced the number of patients stuck in hospitals.
The findings provide suggestions for innovative solutions to address the strain on Alberta’s healthcare system, ensuring patients receive the right care in the right settings.
