Emergency Medicine

Emergency Medicine

Emergency medicine cases are a significant portion of medical malpractice litigation in Ontario. Emergency departments operate under conditions that make error more likely: high patient volumes, incomplete histories, simultaneous decision-making across multiple acuity levels, frequent handoffs between providers, and limited follow-up. Common allegations in this area include missed diagnoses, premature discharge, failure to order appropriate imaging, communication breakdowns at handoff, and inadequate triage.

The standard of care in emergency medicine is defined by what a reasonable emergency physician practising in similar circumstances would have done. Courts have recognized that emergency departments differ from primary care and consultant settings, and the standard reflects the realities of the environment without lowering the duty owed to patients. Expert evidence in these cases is typically provided by emergency medicine specialists rather than the relevant downstream consultant.

Hallway medicine, prolonged wait times, and chronic overcrowding raise systemic issues that interact with individual standard-of-care analysis in ways the courts continue to work out.

Posts tagged Emergency Medicine analyze Ontario decisions involving emergency department care, from missed cardiac and stroke diagnoses to pediatric assessment failures and discharge errors.

Ibrahimova v Cavanagh: The Court of Appeal Upholds a Causation Finding Built on Inference

The Court of Appeal for Ontario dismisses Dr. Cavanagh’s causation appeal in Ibrahimova v Cavanagh, upholding findings about what would have happened at a tertiary hospital the patient never reached on the relevant day. The decision confirms that a plaintiff can prove a counterfactual treatment path through a specialist from the receiving discipline, without institutional witnesses, and that a defendant who calls no expert in that specialty is unlikely to recast the resulting findings as speculation.

August 8, 2026

Navy title card reading "Dementia in the Hallway: Hallway care and the cognitively impaired patient in Ontario" from paulcahill.ca.

Five Days in a Hallway: Dementia, Delirium, and Hospital Liability in Ontario

A Saskatoon family went public this week after an 88-year-old man with early Alzheimer’s spent nearly five days on a bed in an emergency department hallway. The story is from Saskatchewan, but the conditions are familiar in Ontario, and the risks are sharpest for the patient who cannot orient himself, use a call bell, or tell anyone something has changed. Where the line falls between a strained system and an actionable failure is narrower than the headlines suggest.

August 7, 2026

Waiting 48 Hours in the Emergency Room: When Does a Delay Become Negligence?

A new report finds one in 10 admitted patients now spend more than 48 hours waiting in the emergency department, and roughly 16,000 died while waiting for care last year. But a broken system is not the same as a winnable malpractice claim. Here is where an ER delay can cross into negligence in Ontario, and where it cannot.

June 25, 2026

Ibrahimova v Cavanagh: The Court of Appeal Upholds a Causation Finding Built on Inference

Five Days in a Hallway: Dementia, Delirium, and Hospital Liability in Ontario

Waiting 48 Hours in the Emergency Room: When Does a Delay Become Negligence?

Shaw Estate v Handler: The Court of Appeal Upholds Liability for a Failure to Recall After Critical Imaging

Ibrahimova v Cavanagh: Missed pPROM, the Novel Presentation Referral Framework, and Catastrophic Outcomes

Ricottone v Long: Thunderclap Headache, SAH Differential, and Counterfactual Causation

CPSO v Duic: Missed Peritonitis, Premature Discharge, and the Emergency Medicine Standard of Practice

McMullan Estate v Naom Estate: Mild Aortic Root Dilation, ED Chest Pain, and the Limits of Foreseeability

A Failure to Admit, an Acute Psychiatric Crisis, and a Catastrophic Injury Settlement

Pellerin v Balfour: Negative Imaging, Differential Diagnosis, and ER Discharge

Hasan v Trillium: When the Defendant’s Negligence Creates the Evidentiary Gap

Papineau v Romero-Sierra: When a Lyme Disease Claim Fails at the Diagnosis

Concerned about medical negligence?
Talk to Paul directly.

Emergency Medicine

Browse related areas

Concerned about medical negligence? Talk to Paul directly.

Concerned about medical negligence?
Talk to Paul directly.