One in 10 hospital beds occupied by patients waiting for other forms of care in Alberta, MEI finds
Montreal, February 20, 2025 – Allowing independent health providers to open up new continuing care facilities or contribute to home care services could reduce the number of hospital beds occupied by patients who need alternate levels of care in Alberta, according to an MEI report published this morning.
“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,” explains Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI and author of the publication. “This phenomenon is an immense drain on hospital resources, and contributes to patients’ very long waits in Alberta’s emergency rooms.”
The term “alternate level of care” applies to patients who occupy a hospital bed in a certain department, but whose condition no longer requires the type of care provided there.
This can be due to a lack of space in other departments or a lack of space in continuing care or home care services.
In 2024, between nine and 16 per cent of hospital beds in Alberta’s seven largest population centres were occupied by patients needing an alternate level of care on average, according to government data.
In early 2024, an average of 1,500 acute-care beds were occupied daily by alternate level of care patients in the province, leading to a bottleneck in ERs.
Studies estimate that a single patient ready for transfer but still occupying an emergency room bed prevents the treatment of four ER patients per hour.
It is estimated that each alternate level of care patient costs Canada’s health systems between $730 and $1,200 per day.
“This inability to get patients in the right care settings affects the entire hospital system by reducing its ability to treat patients,” adds Ms. Faubert. “It increases wait times, leads to staff burnout, and becomes a drain on precious hospital resources.”
The researcher argues that a key to solving this issue lies in improving access to home care and continuing care facilities.
An average of 4,760 Albertans per year were stuck in hospital beds while waiting for spaces in continuing care facilities in recent years.
Another 3,135 Albertans were stuck in hospital beds while waiting for home care services in the past year, with fully half of them spending 13 days or longer in this situation.
Studies have shown that the majority of alternate level of care patients are elderly.
“While Alberta has been adding new continuing care and home care spaces, it has not been able to do so fast enough,” says Ms. Faubert. “The province could speed things up by removing hurdles that prevent non-governmental care providers from filling this gap.”
The researcher also points to successful examples of informal home care services in Germany and the Netherlands as a way to improve access and reduce the number of alternate level of care patients stuck waiting in hospital beds when they would be best served elsewhere.
The MEI publication is available here.
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The MEI (formerly the Montreal Economic Institute) is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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