The Emergency Departments are experiencing high volumes of patients who need care. Please be prepared to wait. The most serious cases are treated first.
Not all health concerns need emergency care. You can also book a virtual visit or go to an urgent care clinic for these concerns. For life-threatening symptoms, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.
Thank you for your patience.
At Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN), we take pride in the services and care we provide. It is important for us to share our performance with the communities we serve. Sharing openly helps make sure we continue to grow, innovate, and give the best care possible.
From May 26 to 30, 2025, a review team visited WRHN @ Midtown and WRHN @ Chicopee. They looked at our stroke programs and services using national quality standards. WRHN earned Stroke Distinction™, which means we are a leader in high-quality stroke care in Canada.
A stroke is a medical emergency that happens when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in a patient’s brain. Almost two million brain cells die every minute after a stroke starts (Saver, 2006). Stroke patients need treatment as soon as possible for the best chance of recovery.
At WRHN, we continue to work to shorten our door-to-needle time. This is the amount of time between when a stroke patient arrives and when they get medicine that treats blood clots. From April to September 2024, we lowered our median door-to-needle time from 51 minutes to 43 minutes. This improvement saved approximately 16 million brain cells per stroke patient.
Stroke units provide evidence-based care for patients after a stroke. When patients are treated on a stroke unit, they:
Care teams include many types of healthcare workers. Each team member has specific skills and knowledge about stroke care.
In 2024, 882 patients were admitted to WRHN for a sudden (acute) stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Of these patients, 97.3 per cent received care on a designated stroke unit.
Rehabilitation helps patients rebuild their strength and independence after a stroke. Direct inpatient rehabilitation therapy is an active, in-person treatment. It is monitored or guided by a therapist. It can:
It plays an important role in stroke recovery.
Our stroke team does direct inpatient rehabilitation therapy with patients at WRHN @ Chicopee. Every day, they do a median of 85.6 minutes of therapy with each patient. This is an improvement from 81.3 minutes during the previous quarter.
WRHN @ Chicopee is a leader in direct minutes of therapy across the Central South Regional Stroke Network. It also helps patients recover well after a stroke. Their progress is tracked using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM).
WRHN provides important stroke services at both campuses. WRHN @ Midtown is a District Stroke Centre for Waterloo Wellington as part of the Central South Stroke Network. It provides:
WRHN @ Chicopee provides rehabilitation and helps patients re-enter the community after a stroke.
Learn more about stroke, care, and health in Waterloo Region between 2019 and 2024:
In 2019–2020, the modifiable stroke risk factors for the population of Region of Waterloo were as follows:
In 2021, the Region of Waterloo’s population included:
An infographic shows the health and stroke statistics above for Waterloo Region from 2019 to 2021.
In 2022-2023:
In 2023–2024, the Region of Waterloo had:
25.4 per cent of stroke patients were transferred to inpatient rehabilitation.
During this same year, WRHN’s legacy hospitals had:
An infographic shows the health and stroke statistics above for Waterloo Region from 2022 to 2024.
