35 | durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, October 20, 2022 | Pizza Sweet & sour relish of chopped eggplant and assorted vegetables, mozzarella cheese, topped with baked ricotta and herbed bread crumbs. Medium Only $9.95 plus tax Come in OVEN READY Take N Bake Pizza, Home made Soup, Many Pasta Dishes, Balsamic & Caesar Dressings, Eggplant Parmigiana, Tiramisu desserts, Arancini (rice balls), Chicken & Veal Parmigiana, Sauces (meat, rose, alfredo, tomato, arrabbiata, voldka, marsala) Custom Catering Available (talk to Carmela) WED NOON-8, ThuRS, FRi, SAT NOON-10, SuN 4-8, MON & TuES ClOSED New Sicilian Caponata Pizza La Pizza! & Pasta A Tradition of Quality, Value & Service Since 1975 lasagna Special Every Thursday Only $3095 Ready to Go! Serves 6 - 8 Take & Bake Dinners & more available. One location only! 30 Taunton Rd. E., North Oshawa • 905-725-5100 www.lapizzaandpasta.com Takeout or Delivery Nick and Carmela A new online tracking tool is being launched by Lakeridge Health as a means of helping patients navigate increasingly busy emergency departments at its Durham Region hospitals. The ED Wait Times Tracker, hosted at the Lakeridge Health website, provides patients with continuously updated, approximate wait times at the four emergency departments under the system's umbrella, according to an Oct. 13 announcement. Information on the tracker will be refreshed every 15 minutes and calculated using data from the previous four hours in the emergency departments. "Pinpointing the exact amount of time a person will wait to see a doctor in the ED is complex," said Dr. Michael Howlett, chief of the emergency department with Lakeridge Health. "While the ED Wait Times Tracker provides an approximate wait time based on an estimate, providing this information to people will help ease some of the distress, discomfort, and anxiety associated with coming into a hospital." Emergency department wait times are affected by staffing and the number and acuity of patients in attendance, according to Lakeridge. The sickest people are seen first, those experiencing life-threatening incidents or trauma or have been in serious accidents. Emergency department wait times are often cited as the root cause of stress on other resources, including paramedics. A recent report by the Region of Durham Paramedic Service indicated that staff regularly encounter delays in checking patients into hospitals, meaning they are unavailable to respond to new calls for service. In addition, Durham's paramedics recently joined with other first responders, including firefighters and police, to call on politicians to address what they describe as a "crisis" in staffing levels. The newly-introduced tracker is a means of helping the community address often-crowded emergency departments, Lakeridge said. "ED wait times continue to be a focus for many people in our community," said Cynthia Davis, president and CEO of Lakeridge Health. "Despite tremendous pressures, our staff and physicians continue to work quickly and efficiently to care for all patients." ONLINE APP TRACKS TRAFFIC AT DURHAM HOSPITALS JEFF MITCHELL jmitchell@durhamregion.com NEWS SCAN THIS CODE to see more Durham news. A new online tracking system is designed to help patients navigate increasingly busy emergency departments at Lakeridge Health hospitals. Jason Liebregts/Metroland Fill the Gap $500 INYOUR POCKETS! $250REFERRALBONUS $250SIGNINGBONUS 866-495-2182 Contactus toapply today! * * thestaffingconnection.ca resumes@thestaffingconnection.ca *Conditions Apply