A third of Ontario cancer patients visited an emergency room at least once in the 90 days prior to diagnosis, are more likely to have certain types of cancer, are disproportionately older and living in rural and “marginalized” areas, according to a new study.
Emergency rooms being overburdened, distressing places to be diagnosed with cancer, as well being ill-equipped to provide the best cancer care, the reasons these kinds of patients end up there “must be explored further to improve their care and outcomes,” concludes the study, published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, into adults diagnosed with cancer from 2014 to 2021.