About Acute Care
Acute care services are care/services provided in a hospital or a psychiatric facility and that requires referral from another sector.
This includes hospital inpatient care (e.g. admission for medical, surgical, maternity reasons), specialized services (like diagnostic tests and tertiary care), ambulatory care services.
Key Observations
Hospital Acute Care
Hospital acute care refers to any treatment provided to hospitalized patients.
In New Brunswick in 2024-2025:
• 46% of orthopedic surgeries were completed within the national benchmark of 182 days, while 80% of hip fracture surgeries were completed within the benchmark of 48 hours. Overall, Zone 5 reported higher percentages of orthopedic and cancer surgeries completed within recommended wait-time targets.
• The Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) in New Brunswick was 120, indicating that the observed number of in-hospital deaths was higher than expected. The lowest ratios were reported in Zone 5 (87) and Zone 7 (91).
• About 1 in 18 patients experienced at least one harmful event during their hospital stay (6 per 100 patients discharged). The rate was lowest in Zone 5 (4 per 100) and highest in Zone 2 (8 per 100).
Specialized Services
Specialized services are services or treatments offered by specialists to diagnose chronic health conditions and/or to support a specialized treatment.
• In 2024-2025, among all patients diagnosed with invasive lung cancer, around 2 citizens out of 5 (41%) were diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. This reflects a delay in lung cancer diagnosis. This percentage was higher in Zone 5 (45%) and Zone 7 (45%).
