ArticleJournal of immigrant and minority health2026
In-hospital Wait Times for Emergency General Surgery: Do Immigrants Wait Longer?
Article in Journal of immigrant and minority health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Language and cultural barriers may impede effective communication and delay prompt surgical intervention for immigrants undergoing emergency general surgery (EGS). Timely surgical care for immigrants may be further impacted by additional challenges during overnight encounters due to reduced staffing and support systems. This study aims to compare in-hospital wait times for EGS and possible prolonged overnight encounters among immigrants and non-immigrants in British Columbia (BC), Canada. This study analyzed population-level immigration data linked with hospital and emergency department records for patients undergoing EGS procedures from 2013 to 2021. In-hospital wait times, tracked as time from triage-to-assessment and assessment-to-admission, were compared between immigrants and non-immigrants and between recent (< 2 years since immigration) and established (> 10 years since immigration) immigrants. The proportion of off-hour presentations were compared between immigrants and non-immigrants. The study included 77,937 EGS procedures between 2013 and 2021, 14.3% of which were on immigrants. Immigrants experienced longer wait times from triage-to-assessment (94.9 versus 88.2 min; p < 0.01) and from assessment-to-admission (320.0 versus 312.4 min; p < 0.01) compared to non-immigrants. Adjusting for demographic differences, immigrants had higher odds of presenting at an emergency department during off-hours (OR: 1.09; 95%CI: 1.07 to 1.12). Recent immigrants had longer triage-to-assessment wait times than more established immigrants (RR: 1.05, 95%CI: 1.01–1.10). Immigrants undergoing emergency general surgery faced slightly longer wait times on average and were more likely to seek care during off-hours compared with non-immigrants. These disparities, especially pronounced among recent immigrants, highlight systemic inequities in accessing timely, life-altering surgical care.
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Registered trials
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