What to know
- Brampton Civic Hospital ranked lowest among Canadian hospitals with emergency rooms, averaging just 2.06 stars from nearly 3,000 reviews.
- The most common complaints for GTA hospitals were slow doctor response and poor communication, with reviewers often frustrated by a lack of updates.
- Etobicoke General and Scarborough General also ranked among the country’s worst, both criticized for long wait times and delays in seeing specialists.
- Mount Sinai Hospital led the national rankings for positive reviews, with patients praising staff for kindness and efficiency.
The GTA has hospitals at both ends of a new ranking based on Google reviews — including the lowest-rated and highest-rated facilities in the country.
Brampton Civic Hospital received an average score of 2.06 stars from 2,903 reviews, putting it last among 177 Canadian hospitals with emergency departments included in an analysis by web firm SEO Backlinks.
At the other end, Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital topped the ranking with 3.78 stars across 1,143 reviews.
The analysis examined more than 135,000 Google reviews. Among GTA hospitals, recurring complaints focused on wait times, communication and delays in seeing doctors or specialists.
But there’s an important caveat: this is a ranking of Google reviews, not hospital quality or medical outcomes.
Online reviews are voluntary and self-selected. A peer-reviewed Canadian study published in BMJ Open Quality found Google ratings had a weak positive relationship with standardized overall patient-experience scores, but no significant correlation with several other hospital characteristics it examined.
So, if you’re dealing with a medical emergency, don’t use star ratings to decide where to go. Call 911 or head to the nearest emergency department.
Which GTA hospitals received the lowest Google ratings?
Brampton Civic landed at the bottom of the national analysis with its 2.06-star average.
The hospital is operated by William Osler Health System, which also runs Etobicoke General Hospital. Both emergency departments operate 24 hours a day.
Etobicoke General also appeared near the bottom, ranking 12th-lowest nationally with an average of 2.44 stars.
Communication was among the complaints in recent reviews.
“No updates as to when doctors are in,” one reviewer wrote in September.
Scarborough Health Network’s General Hospital ranked just behind it at 13th-lowest nationally.
“Got an appointment to see a specialist for 2 p.m., we didn’t get to see them till 6 p.m.,” one reviewer wrote.
Scarborough Health Network operates full-service emergency departments at its General, Birchmount and Centenary hospitals.
What are the worst-rated hospitals in Canada?
- Brampton Civic Hospital, Brampton, ON: 2.06 (2,903 reviews)
- Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering Hospital, Ajax, ON: 2.15 (1,636 reviews)
- Surrey Memorial Hospital, Surrey, BC: 2.19 (2,052 reviews)
- Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital, Tillsonburg, ON: 2.23 (229 reviews)
- QEII Halifax Infirmary, Halifax, NS: 2.32 (484 reviews)
- Lakeridge Health Oshawa, Oshawa, ON: 2.34 (1,476 reviews)
- Windsor Regional Hospital Metropolitan Campus, Windsor, ON: 2.35 (759 reviews)
- Gatineau Hospital, Gatineau, QC: 2.37 (523 reviews)
- Hull Hospital, Gatineau, QC: 2.40 (592 reviews)
- Cape Breton Regional Hospital, Sydney, NS: 2.41 (218 reviews)
What are the best-rated hospitals in Canada?
Mount Sinai comes out on top, with kind reviews of staff and service.
“The ER staff were all very kind and efficient,” one reviewer wrote in September.
Toronto General Hospital placed eighth, where a reviewer wrote in June, “I had a great experience at Toronto General Hospital. The staff were kind, professional, and very attentive.”
Here’s the top 10:
- Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON: 3.78 (1,143 reviews)
- St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC: 3.74 (1,004 reviews)
- Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis, Lévis, QC: 3.71 (321 reviews)
- Campbellford Memorial Hospital, Campbellford, ON: 3.63 (219 reviews)
- Vernon Jubilee Hospital, Vernon, BC: 3.62 (343 reviews)
- Hôtel-Dieu d’Arthabaska, Victoriaville, QC: 3.62 (294 reviews)
- Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus, Quebec City, QC: 3.61 (441 reviews)
- Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, ON: 3.55 (1,191 reviews)
- Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, Hawkesbury, ON: 3.53 (607 reviews)
- Hôpital Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins, Cowansville, QC: 3.51 (259 reviews)
St. Michael’s Hospital ranked 12th best at 3.47 stars, and Toronto Western Hospital ranked 17th at 3.41 stars.
“A hospital’s Google rating is one of the first things people see when they search for the nearest emergency department. Nobody should choose where to go in an emergency off a star rating, and if it’s serious, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital. But the hospitals at the top of this list get the same praise again and again,” Oliver Weston, founder of SEO Backlinks, said in a press release.
