Last updated: June 12, 2026
The short version. ER Compass shows estimated emergency-room wait times gathered from public hospital and government feeds, to help you decide where to go. It is information, not medical advice, and the numbers can be wrong, out of date, or missing.
In a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room right away — no matter what any wait time here says. A shorter posted wait never means you should delay care.
These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your use of ercompass.ca ("ER Compass," "the site," "we," "us," "our"). By using the site, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the site. They're written in plain language; nothing in them is meant to take away rights you have under the law where you live.
ER Compass is an independent, free, public-interest project that collects and re-presents emergency-room wait-time information that hospitals and health authorities already publish, and adds simple comparisons, history and estimates on top. That's all it is.
ER Compass is not a hospital, clinic, government agency, health authority, or medical or healthcare provider, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Using the site does not create any medical, professional, or other relationship between you and us.
ER Compass does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and nothing on the site is a substitute for the judgment of 911 dispatchers, paramedics, nurses, doctors or other qualified professionals.
The site cannot tell you whether you need care, how urgent your situation is, or which facility is right for your condition. Emergency rooms triage — they treat the sickest patients first — so a shorter posted wait does not mean you will be seen sooner, and a longer one is never a reason to avoid the ER.
If you think you may be having a medical emergency — including chest pain, trouble breathing, severe bleeding, signs of stroke, or any sudden, severe or worsening symptoms — call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately, regardless of any wait time shown here. For non-urgent health questions, call your provincial health line at 811 (for example Health811, HealthLink BC, or Info-Santé).
Never delay seeking care, and never disregard professional medical advice, because of something you read on ER Compass.
The wait times, "open/closed" states, predictions, drive times, and other figures on ER Compass are estimates drawn from external sources and statistical models. They:
We work to keep the data accurate and will correct issues we find, but we cannot and do not guarantee any of it. Always confirm critical information directly with the hospital or by calling 911 or 811.
You may use ER Compass for your own personal, non-commercial purposes, and you're welcome to link to it. Please don't:
ER Compass aggregates wait-time information that hospitals, regional health authorities, and provincial governments publish for the public. Different sources carry different terms, and we respect them:
We are not affiliated with, and do not speak for, any of these sources. If you are a hospital, health authority, or data provider and have a question about how your data appears here — or would like it corrected or removed — please contact us and we'll respond promptly.
The ER Compass name, logo, page design and original written content are ours, and the source code is published in our public repository under the licence stated there. The underlying wait-time and map data belong to their respective sources, as described above. You may link to ER Compass and quote small portions with credit; please don't copy the site wholesale or use our name in a way that implies we endorse you.
ER Compass relies on and links to third-party services (maps, address lookup, routing) and to hospital websites. We don't control those services or sites, we're not responsible for them, and their own terms and privacy policies apply when you use them. A link is not an endorsement.
ER Compass is provided "as is" and "as available," with all faults and without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, to the fullest extent the law allows. Without limiting that, we do not warrant that the site or its data will be accurate, complete, current, reliable, uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that it is suitable for any particular purpose. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain warranties to be excluded, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you; in that case, any warranty that can't be excluded is limited to the minimum the law allows.
ER Compass is a free service offered for the public good. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we (and anyone involved in creating or running the site) will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from your use of — or inability to use — the site or its data, including any decision made or action taken (or not taken) based on a wait time or other information shown here.
Your safety comes first, and the law agrees. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability where the law does not allow it to be excluded or limited. In particular, in Quebec the Civil Code does not permit anyone to exclude or limit liability for bodily or moral injury caused to another, and we do not attempt to. Similarly, nothing here removes consumer-protection rights, or liability for gross or intentional fault, that the law where you live does not allow to be waived. Where a limitation in this section is not permitted, it simply doesn't apply, and the rest still stands.
Because this is the kind of information that people may rely on under stress, we'll say it plainly one more time: this site is a convenience, not a lifeline. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest ER.
We may update the site, its features, or these Terms from time to time. When we change these Terms, we'll update the "last updated" date above; significant changes will be reflected here. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated Terms.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. This choice doesn't deprive you of the protection of mandatory consumer or privacy laws of the place where you live.
Questions about these Terms, a correction, or a data-provider request? Email hello@ercompass.ca.
ER Compass is an independent public-interest project, not a hospital, government body, or medical provider. These Terms are not legal advice. See also our Privacy Policy.