By: Raine Tuazon
The modern emergency room can feel like organized chaos. Nurses juggle administrative tasks while patients grow increasingly frustrated in waiting rooms, often unaware of when they’ll receive care. With ER stays averaging nearly 22 hours in December 2023—significantly longer than typical targets—this is exactly what EmergConnect set out to address.
Founded in 2020 in Waterloo, Ontario by CEO Ron Galaev, EmergConnect has developed a digital platform that aims to improve how patients enter the emergency care system and how healthcare providers manage their workload.
“We saw nurses spending up to 60% of their time on administrative tasks instead of patient care,” says Galaev. “That’s not why they went into healthcare.”
EmergConnect’s approach centers on what healthcare professionals call the “digital front door”—technology that allows patients to begin their healthcare journey before physically entering an emergency room. The technology is built on a clear and practical concept. Patients register either from home or via kiosks, provide their information once, and receive AI-generated wait time estimates. Behind the scenes, the system seamlessly connects with existing record systems, streamlining workflows and potentially reducing much of the data entry typically done by nurses—all without requiring hospitals to overhaul their current technology.
Transforming Healthcare Experiences
Nurses traditionally spend large portions of their shifts buried in paperwork instead of focusing on patients. EmergConnect’s digital intake tools seek to change this balance, shifting hours back toward direct patient care.
“When we first started analyzing emergency departments, we were surprised to discover nurses had to click 64 times just to intake a single patient,” says Galaev. “We’ve reduced that to just 4 clicks per patient. That represents thousands of hours potentially returned to frontline nurses every month so they can do what they were trained for: providing care to patients, not paperwork,” Galaev added.
Hospitals working with EmergConnect have reported improvements since adopting the system. For example, average wait times from arrival to doctor assessment have reportedly dropped by 15 percent, based on internal reports. The number of patients leaving without treatment decreased by 35 percent over a six-month period. Patient satisfaction scores appeared to rise by 15 percentage points, with more than 93 percent of respondents now reporting positive experiences, according to recent feedback forms.
The psychology behind waiting changes considerably when patients know what to expect. A mother waiting with a feverish child feels less anxious when given a reliable time estimate and understanding of where her child stands in the priority queue. This transparency may have contributed to changes in how patients experience emergency visits.
Data Insights and Future Growth
The dashboard hospital administrators use through EmergConnect reveals patterns that were previously hidden in mountains of paperwork. Sudden spikes in respiratory cases, consistently understaffed Wednesday evenings, or neighbourhoods generating specific health concerns all become more visible through data visualization.
Financial backing has followed these early successes. EmergConnect secured $2 million in seed funding by late 2024 and now plans expansion beyond Ontario into Quebec, British Columbia, and eventually the American market. From its modest beginnings in 2020, the team has grown substantially and continues hiring additional staff.
Technical developments continue as well. The development roadmap includes predictive tools for hospital stay duration, readmission probability, and deeper integration with paramedic systems and virtual care options. With this, EmergConnect supports a healthcare system currently stretched beyond capacity in many regions.
Building Healthcare Partnerships
What distinguishes EmergConnect from typical tech startups is its close collaboration with healthcare professionals. Rather than imposing technology from outside, the company developed its platform by working directly with emergency nurses, physicians, paramedics, and hospital administrators.
This partnership approach has earned EmergConnect notable trust within medical communities. The company maintains relationships with Ontario healthcare systems and organizations like the Triage Working Group and the National Emergency Nurses Association. These ensure its solutions align with established clinical protocols while supporting innovation.
The company’s platform received input from frontline staff at every development stage. Nurses didn’t just adopt the system—they played a direct role in shaping how it works. The result is technology that aims to address real pain points experienced by healthcare workers daily, not just theoretical efficiency improvements.
Emergency departments across Canada continue to face record volumes, staffing shortages, and capacity challenges. EmergConnect’s approach suggests that meaningful healthcare transformation doesn’t always require more doctors, beds, or hospitals. Sometimes, it involves reimagining the information flows that connect patients with providers. In that space between chaos and care, EmergConnect is building digital bridges that could help shape the future of same-day medicine in North America.
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is based on reports, internal data shared by EmergConnect, and statements from company representatives. Results may vary across different healthcare settings, and this article does not constitute medical advice or a guarantee of specific outcomes.
