Frequently Asked Questions

We collect data directly from official provincial health sources (e.g., Health Quality Ontario, Quebec MSSS). However, we are an independent observatory, not a government agency. Always rely on professional medical advice. If you have a medical emergency, call 911 immediately.

ER wait times are dynamic and depend on the number of patients arriving, the severity of their conditions (triage scores), and available staff. A sudden influx of critical cases can increase wait times for everyone else instantly.

This metric measures the time from when a nurse first assesses you (triage) to when you see a physician. This is different from 'Registration to Doctor' or 'Total Time in ER'. Different provinces use different metrics, which is why we clearly label them.

Most data sources are updated every 15-30 minutes. We fetch the latest data continuously. Check the 'Last updated' timestamp on each hospital card to be sure.

Not all hospitals report real-time wait times publicly. We can only display data that is officially published by the health authority. We are constantly working to add more sources.

Only if they use the same measurement methodology. Ontario reports mean triage-to-physician time, while Quebec reports rolling average registration-to-provider time. Our platform flags when direct comparison is statistically invalid and shows a methodology divergence warning.

Each hospital card shows how that province measures wait times — including the metric family (e.g., Time to Provider), start/end events (e.g., Triage to Physician), and statistic type (e.g., Mean). These tags help you understand exactly what each number represents.

We use automated anomaly detection (z-score and IQR methods), heartbeat monitoring for scraper health, and SHA-256 payload hashing to verify data integrity. Our Data Quality dashboard displays every gap, outlier, and quality metric transparently.

Yes. The entire codebase — scrapers, API, frontend, and methodology documentation — is available on GitHub under the MIT license. We encourage contributions, audits, and feedback from researchers and developers.