50 Secrets Hospitals Don't Tell You

What patients need to know for their own well-being.

- Lisa Bendall

Hospital stays often come as a surprise, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared. The following insights, which are based on current research and expert advice, might not have occurred to you—or been brought up by your health care team. These 50 points can go a long way towards preventing unwelcome incidents, reducing the likelihood of complications, and speeding up your recovery, ensuring an improved overall hospital experience.

Pick the Right Place

1. “A teaching hospital, where a comprehensive ‘no stones left unturned’ workup can be done, is better for complex issues, gravely ill patients or when no one can figure out what is going on,” says Dr. Jeffrey Brock of MedExtra, a private Montreal-based firm that helps patients navigate the public health care system.

2.Wait times in Canadian emergency departments have been increasing, primarily because of hospital overcrowding, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). If your injury isn’t critical or complicated, consider choosing an ER with a fast-track clinic or rapid assessment zone.

3. The length of your wait in the ER can depend less on staff and more on factors you might not have thought of, including the physical layout of the department, how its supplies are stored and the efficiency of other departments such as radiology.

4. Not all ERs are able to be open 24 hours. In some regions, they’ve been forced to close at night or over weekends. “There are emergency departments struggling to cover staff during certain hours,” says Dr. Paul Pageau, president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.