Background: Erie Shores HealthCare (ESHC) is a rural, resource-poor, publicly funded, 72-bed hospital serving South-West Ontario region. Psychiatric patients' timely access to care is an important indicator for the quality of care at the ESHC. This qualitative inquiry focused on the wait time of the psychiatric patients attending the ESHC emergency department. The primary objective was to interpret healthcare providers' (informants) perspectives on possible factors affecting the wait time of the psychiatric patients, awaiting transfer or clinical care, at the hospital.Methods: A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with the informants following Thorne's Interpretive Description approach. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyze and to interpret interview transcripts. Results: Emerged cross-cutting themes were: 1) admission process, 2) transfer process, 3) patient factors, 4) staff factors, and 5) available resources. Informants also recognized a knowledge gap in frontline workers on currently available mental health resources in the area. Conclusion: This qualitative inquiry has allowed Erie Shores HealthCare develop a one pager practical for frontline health workers in a rural setting to navigate the available community resources. Further research can validate our findings and may allow other rural hospitals to seek solutions to similar issues.