COVID-19 hospitalization and emergency department statistics

Key links

Provisional data (updated): COVID-19 Hospitalization and Emergency Department Statistics, 2023–2024 (Q1 to Q2) — Provisional Data (XLSX)

Data tables: COVID-19 data tables, 2019–2020 to 2022–2023 (ZIP)

Release summary: NACRS emergency department visits and lengths of stay

Contact:

help@cihi.ca

COVID-19 hospitalization statistics based on provisional data (April to September 2023) can be found under Featured material. Note: Provisional data should be interpreted with caution. Final 2023–2024 (Q1 to Q4) COVID-19 emergency department findings can be found on the web page NACRS emergency department visits and length of stay.

June 20, 2024 — Hospitals and emergency departments (EDs) play a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic. The data collected for these areas can inform understanding of resource utilization and outcomes for COVID-19 patients.

From April 2022 to March 2023 (the most recent complete year of data), there were more than 168,850 hospital stays in Canada for patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis. During the same period, more than 222,365 ED visits for COVID-19 were reported by participating jurisdictions (data updated June 20, 2024, to include hospitalizations from Quebec).

Use the data tables to explore the most recent information on hospitalizations and ED visits for COVID-19 patients.

Note: Estimated costs for COVID-19 hospitalizations were updated with the most recent financial information in June 2024.

Key findings

Patients who were hospitalized more recently with COVID-19 (April 2022 to March 2023) were older (median age of 75 compared with 64).
The majority of patients (69%) who went to the ED were discharged home, while 26% were admitted to hospital. 90% of ED visits were completed within 25 hours, an increase from 15 hours the year before.
More than half (65%) of patients admitted to hospital were discharged home, while 10% died in the facility. The average length of stay in hospital increased to 20 days from 13 the previous year.
13% of hospital stays included an intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Among those patients with ICU stays, 37% received ventilation and 22% died in the facility.
The estimated total cost of COVID-19 hospital stays in Canada from April 2022 to March 2023 is about $4.1 billion. Costs continue to increase each fiscal year.
The estimated average cost per COVID-19 hospital stay was $24,400, about 3 times greater than the cost of an average hospital stay.
Hospital stays with ICU admissions are significantly more costly than hospital stays without ICU admissions ($51,000 compared with $20,000).

Featured material