er visit time

What to expect at the ER: A guide to navigating the emergency room

• Your ER experience and wait time will depend on the severity of your condition. 
• Reasons to go to the ER might be excessive bleeding, a high fever, a seizure, or chest pains. 
• If you need to see a doctor immediately, but it's not an emergency, urgent-care is another option. 

When you or a loved one arrives at an emergency room (ER) in the US, you should expect to have a nurse briefly assess you shortly after arrival. The nurse will determine the severity of your condition, which will determine your wait time. If you're in serious condition, you may be brought by paramedics or EMTs and be taken directly to a trauma ward, or seen by a doctor immediately depending on your condition. 

People in the ER are treated in order of how sick they are, says Eric Chu , MD, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

"For example, if you are brought in after having a cardiac arrest, you will be taken to the resuscitation bay where you will be seen immediately. In other cases, you may walk into the waiting room, be assessed by a nurse, and then depending on your acuity, have to wait until a room is open for you," says Chu. 

Average wait times in the ER can range from 25 to 50 minutes , depending on how busy the hospital is. "I think the biggest factor on how long it'll take to be seen in the ER is where you live and which hospital you go to. I have seen patients wait six hours just to be put into a room. It also depends on what time and which day you go. Mondays are notorious for being the busiest day of the week and the weekends are usually the least," says Chu. 

Here are some instances when you might need to go to an ER, and what you can expect once you're there. 

What to expect at the ER

When you arrive at the ER, a trained emergency nurse will assess your condition and determine the urgency of your situation; this process is referred to as " triage ."

While you're waiting to see a doctor, you may be x-rayed, given medications for your symptoms, or be asked to provide blood or other samples, according to Chu. 

"You will be seen by a doctor, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner when you are moved to a room. Treatment or further tests may be done at this time. Consultants, including cardiologists, nephrologists, or neurologists, may also be involved in your care, if required. Then, depending on how sick you are, you may be discharged or admitted to the hospital," says Chu.

When should you go to the ER?

As the name suggests, an ER is essentially for emergencies that could be fatal or cause permanent disability. 

You may also need to go to the ER if you or a loved one have been in an accident or have experienced trauma and require immediate attention.

On the other hand, if you're feeling unwell and need to see a doctor immediately, but it's not an emergency, you can go to your primary care doctor if they have a same-day opening or go to an urgent-care clinic . 

Many urgent care clinics are open every day, and you can get treated faster and for a substantially lower cost than at an ER. If your symptoms are mild and you can wait a day, you can also visit your primary care physician during clinic hours.

What to bring to the ER

If possible, you should try to gather some essentials before you go to the ER, to help the ER physicians understand your medical history and any allergies you might have.  

"Things that are helpful to bring to the ER include your home medication list, the names of your doctors, any paperwork from recent hospital or doctors' visits, and your insurance information (if you have insurance). For example, if you had a recent heart attack, it may be helpful to bring the paperwork from that admission and what medications you have been taking," says Chu. 

You should also try and take a trusted family member or friend along with you to help with paperwork and answer any of the physician's questions, if you are too ill to do so yourself. 

If you're not going to the ER under acute circumstances, Chu recommends bringing a book or a phone charger, since you could be waiting a long time. 

What is the cost of an ER visit?

The cost of your ER visit will depend on the tests conducted, medication and treatment provided, and your health insurance coverage, says Chu. This can vary from hospital to hospital. "One hospital may charge you $30 for a medicine while another may charge you $300," he says. This variation in cost can be due to several factors . For example, larger hospitals, teaching hospitals, or hospitals that provide highly specialized services may charge considerably higher fees.

The average cost of an ER visit is around $1,500 . Sprains, which are among the top causes for ER visits, could cost around $1,100, whereas treating a kidney stone could cost around $3,500. If you have insurance, it may help cover some of this cost, depending on your insurance plan.

Whether your ER visit is covered by insurance can depend on several factors, including whether the hospital or provider are included in the insurance provider's network, says Chu. 

"It can also depend on whether your insurance covers certain costs, like an ambulance ride, for example. An ambulance ride that is not covered by insurance can be quite expensive," says Chu. Ambulance rides can range between $224 and $2,204 per transport. 

Insider's takeaway

You may need to visit the ER for life-threatening situations. The course of your visit can vary quite a bit depending on your condition. While ERs provide necessary and oftentimes lifesaving services, they can involve long wait times and expensive bills, making urgent care or your primary care provider a better option if the situation isn't an emergency. 

Related stories from Health Reference:

• How hypertension, heart disease, and stroke are related
• What causes high blood pressure and how to know if you have hypertension
• How to lower blood pressure with a heart-healthy diet and exercise
• 7 of the most dangerous things that put you at risk of a heart attack
• What is a good resting heart rate, for adults and kids

• Main content

The dos and don'ts of going to the ER

Ers across the country are filling up in a return to the pre-pandemic norm. before you see a doctor at the emergency room or call 911, read these tips from dr. michael daignault,..

During this past winter's COVID-19 surge, fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant, a lot of front-line and customer-facing industries were impacted by widespread infections. 

Local emergency medical service systems were hit especially hard. Communities were told to call 911 only for “true-life- or limb-threatening emergencies.” But this gave those of us who work in the EMS and the emergency room a pause. We thought: “Isn’t this the way the 911 system is supposed to be used?”

ERs across the country are seeing a rapid return to pre-pandemic volume. My ER in Burbank, California, has had some 200-plus patient days recently.

More: Which supplements are most likely to land you in the ER?

As we head deeper into spring and then summer – traditionally the busiest time for ERs – and in the context of reiterating the importance of using your local ER appropriately, I wanted to present some practical "dos and don'ts."

Do not "wait it out."  If you have dangerous cardiac symptoms like chest pain or stroke-like symptoms including severe headache, dizziness, weakness to one side of your body, facial droop, or slurred speech. These symptoms could signify a heart attack or stroke – life-threatening conditions that are time-dependent. If not identified and treated within a matter of hours, the damaged part of your heart or brain could be unsalvageable

A study from spring 2020 surveyed nine major hospital systems and found the number of severe heart attacks being treated in the U.S. had plummeted by approximately 40%. Patients were either afraid of going to the ER because of fear of COVID-19 or were unable to access their primary care doctors or specialists. Early treatment with clot-buster medications or a trip to the catheterization laboratory is critical. As we say in the ER, “Time is heart (and brain).”

Read next: Are you at risk for a heart attack during your workout?

Do bring a list of your doctors, known medical problems and prescriptions, including your dosage and any recent changes. Do not assume such critical information is “in the computer.” Even though all hospitals use electronic medical records, they’re often not integrated. It’s extremely difficult and time-consuming for us to call other hospitals or pharmacies for this information. Time that would be better served attending to your emergency!

Also, if you were referred by a doctor’s office or urgent care center for an “abnormal” lab value or image, please bring the report and CD of the image with you. 

People swear by apple cider vinegar for weight loss: Does it actually work?

Do not assume you’ll be able to jump the line if you come by ambulance. It won’t work. And it’s a misuse of the EMS system. As with all visitors to the ER – whether you walk in or come by ambulance – you’ll be quickly evaluated by a triage nurse who will determine whether you need to be seen immediately by a doctor based on an assessment of your “chief complaint” and vital signs. If you’re assessed to be “stable” and asked to wait in the waiting room, this is a good thing! It means you likely do not have a life- or limb-threatening emergency. Please be patient.

Do focus on the reason that brings you to the ER. As much as we’d love to help you out with multiple concerns, we simply don’t have the time, staff, or resources. Please don’t be upset if your doctor asks you “What's the main reason you came to the ER today?” Or “What’s bothering you the most?” We can always refer you back to your primary doctor or a clinic to assess most chronic medical concerns.

Do not call and ask “What’s the wait time in the ER right now?”  We are not a restaurant. We have a rule: If you have to ask the wait time, you probably don’t have an emergency. Post-pandemic wait times are up to multiple hours at ERs across the country. Your time may be better spent at urgent care or use the telehealth function most insurance companies offer now. You can speak to a nurse about your medical complaint, and they can direct you appropriately.

Do bring your own charger for your phone/tablet/laptop. We don’t have extras. Also, most places do have free Wi-Fi but it can be spotty. Better yet, bring a book or magazine.

And finally, please do ask your doctor to go over your discharge plan. This is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the entire ER visit. Ask for a copy and review your lab and imaging results. And please follow up with your primary doctor or specialist. If the doctor recommends you follow up, there’s probably a really good reason.

More: Why Epsom salt should be a staple in your home medicine cabinet

Everyone is talking about biotin: Here's what you need to know.

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When to use the emergency room - adult

Whenever an illness or injury occurs, you need to decide how serious it is and how soon to get medical care. This will help you choose whether it is best to:

• Call your health care provider
• Go to an urgent care clinic
• Go to an emergency department right away

It pays to think about the right place to go. Treatment in an emergency department can cost 2 to 3 times more than the same care in your provider's office. In addition, your health insurance may require you to pay a higher copayment for care in an emergency department. Think about this and the other issues listed below when deciding.

Signs of an Emergency

How quickly do you need care? If a person or unborn baby could die or be permanently disabled, it is an emergency.

Call 911 or the local emergency number to have the emergency team come to you right away if you cannot wait, such as for:

• Stopped breathing
• Head injury with passing out, fainting, or confusion
• Injury to neck or spine, particularly if there is loss of feeling or inability to move
• Electric shock or lightning strike
• Severe burn
• Severe chest pain or pressure
• Seizure that lasted more than 1 minute or from which the person does not rapidly awaken

Go to an emergency department or call 911 or the local emergency number for help for problems such as:

• Trouble breathing
• Passing out, fainting
• Pain in the arm or jaw
• Unusual or bad headache, particularly if it started suddenly
• Suddenly not able to speak, see, walk, or move
• Suddenly weak or drooping on one side of the body
• Dizziness or weakness that does not go away
• Inhaled smoke or poisonous fumes
• Sudden confusion
• Heavy bleeding
• Possible broken bone, loss of movement, particularly if the bone is pushing through the skin
• Serious burn
• Coughing or throwing up blood
• Severe pain anywhere on the body
• Severe allergic reaction with trouble breathing, swelling, hives
• High fever with headache and stiff neck
• High fever that does not get better with medicine
• Throwing up or loose stools that does not stop
• Poisoning or overdose of drug or alcohol

If you are thinking about hurting yourself or others, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org . You can also call 1-800-273-8255 (1-800-273-TALK). The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides free and confidential support 24/7, anytime day or night.

You can also call 911 or the local emergency number or go to the hospital emergency room. DO NOT delay.

If someone you know has attempted suicide, call 911 or the local emergency number right away. DO NOT leave the person alone, even after you have called for help.

When to go to an Urgent Care Clinic

When you have a problem, do not wait too long to get medical care. If your problem is not life threatening or risking disability, but you are concerned and you cannot see your provider soon enough, go to an urgent care clinic.

The kinds of problems an urgent care clinic can deal with include:

• Common mild illnesses, such as colds, the flu, earaches, sore throats, migraines, low-grade fevers, and limited rashes
• Minor injuries, such as sprains, back pain, minor cuts and burns, minor broken bones, or minor eye injuries

If you are not Sure, Talk to Someone

If you are not sure what to do, and you don't have one of the serious conditions listed above, call your provider. If the office is not open, your phone call may be forwarded to someone. Describe your symptoms to the provider who answers your call, and find out what you should do.

Your provider or health insurance company may also offer a nurse telephone advice hotline. Call this number and tell the nurse your symptoms for advice on what to do.

Prepare now

Before you have a medical problem, learn what your choices are. Check the website of your health insurance company. Put these telephone numbers in the memory of your phone:

• Your provider
• The closest emergency department
• Nurse telephone advice line
• Urgent care clinic
• Walk-in clinic

American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine website. What is urgent care medicine. aaucm.org/what-is-urgent-care-medicine/ . Accessed July 25, 2022.

American College of Emergency Physicians website. Emergency care, urgent care - what's the difference? www.acep.org/globalassets/sites/acep/media/advocacy/value-of-em/urgent-emergent-care.pdf . Updated April 2007. Accessed July 25, 2022.

Findlay S. When you should go to an urgent care or walk-in health clinic: knowing your options in advance can help you get the right care and save money. www.consumerreports.org/health-clinics/urgent-care-or-walk-in-health-clinic . Updated May 4, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2022.

Review Date 7/25/2022

Updated by: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

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Important Information You Should Know About the ER

The emergency room (ER) is the first—and sometimes only—place many Americans go for their healthcare. These days it’s often referred to as the emergency department. The ER has become an entry point for patients of all types, but it may not be the right place for some patients to go.

If you’ve gone to the ER when somewhere else might have been a better choice, you’re not alone. Since the ER might not be exactly what you thought it was.

Here are a few things everybody should know about the ER:

The ER Is for Emergencies

Despite the fact that everyone in the ER waiting room seems to have the sniffles and a cough, the ER is really supposed to be for emergencies, hence the name. The whole system is built around the idea that at any minute a heart attack patient could come through those sliding doors; not to mention a shooting victim, a stroke patient, or a woman having a baby right now .

If a bus full of hemophiliacs careens off the interstate and sends 30 bleeding victims to the ER, the staff would have to push aside those poor coughing souls in the waiting room to make room for honest-to-goodness emergencies. It happens—not the bus full of hemophiliacs, per se, but real emergencies regularly displace all those folks who waited until Friday afternoon or Saturday to try to get medical care for a week-old sore throat.

Not First-Come, First-Served

The ER can be a convenient way to get medical care—or maybe your only way—but that doesn’t mean they’ll see folks in the order they come through the door. It doesn’t really matter if you’re the first person in the waiting room. If everyone coming in after you have more of a need for medical care than you do, you’ll have to wait.

It’s common today for ER staff to see the direst emergencies first as well as quickly taking care of people who are least sick. That means the people with moderate medical needs end up waiting for the longest. Some ER systems are doing more to reduce the wait, including a huge change in the order folks are getting seen.

The Doctor Knows a Little About a Lot

Emergency physicians are the medical equivalent of a Jack-of-all-Trades. As an ER doc, you never know what’s coming through the ambulance bay at any given moment. You have to be equally as competent with massive chest trauma as you are with urinary tract infections. If the injury or illness is life-threatening, you’d better know how to get things stabilized and where to go for help after that.

ER doctors are like any other craftsmen: they get really good at doing what they do most. An emergency physician can run circles around any other type of doctor—including a cardiologist—when treating a cardiac arrest . They can stitch wounds in one room and decompress collapsed lungs in another. ER docs can prescribe antibiotics for the 25 or so most common infections by memory.

What an ER doc is not good for is taking care of—or even recognizing—rare diseases and conditions. You don’t go to an emergency doc hoping she’ll diagnose multiple sclerosis or cancer. It happens sometimes or, more to the point, they sometimes will identify a problem and send you to a specialist.

Most importantly, ER docs do spot-check medicine. They take snapshots of a person’s medical history and make quick decisions about what to do. ER docs aren’t in a good position to notice trends or do long-term medicine. Most of these doctors chose this path specifically because at the end of the day they want to pack up and go home. They’re here to save your life—or treat your cough—and move on to the next patient.

The Waiting Room Is a Hotbed of Germs

In case you didn’t notice, there are some sick folks sitting in there. They cough on each other and sneeze all over the place. It’s not like an obstetrician’s office, where everyone is mostly healthy and just coming in for a monthly check-up.

Not only that, but the cleaning crew doesn’t get much time in the waiting room. Around the country, ER’s are filling up throughout the day leaving little opportunity for the chairs, floors, and walls to get a good scrubbing. If you weren’t sick when you walk into an ER waiting room, you might be before you leave it.

It’s Not Always the Best Option

As you may have noticed, I’m not exactly selling the ER for your garden variety sniffle. The ER is a wonderful innovation and they save thousands of lives every year, but as a starting point for minor illness, the ER leaves a lot to be desired.

If you think you have an emergency , by all means, call an ambulance or get yourself to the emergency room. You never want to go to a doctor’s office for chest pain or sudden weakness on one side. Those are the types of things an emergency doc is well prepared to handle. On the other hand, seeing ten different ER physicians for the same complaint on ten different occasions is not likely to help you diagnose what’s wrong.

Try to save the ER for emergencies, you’ll be healthier in the long run.

By Rod Brouhard, EMT-P Rod Brouhard is an emergency medical technician paramedic (EMT-P), journalist, educator, and advocate for emergency medical service providers and patients.

10 Symptoms That Warrant A Trip To The ER

It can be hard to tell when your best bet is to rush to the emergency room.

When you wake up in the middle of the night with an alarming symptom—maybe it's a high fever or splitting headache—it's hard to know whether to rush to the emergency room or not. You don't want to overact, but you definitely don't want to underreact either. So how do you know when that stomach pain needs to be treated ASAP or if that numb feeling can wait until morning to deal with? We spoke to Ryan Stanton, MD, a board-certified emergency physician and spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians to find out.

Head to the ER if...  the pain is intense and sudden. "Is it the worst headache of your life? Did it come on suddenly like you were struck by lightning or hit in the head with a hammer?" says Stanton. "These are the two major questions we will ask to gauge the risk for a potentially deadly cause of headache known as subarachnoid hemorrhage." A headache is also worrisome if it is accompanied by a fever, neck pain, or stiffness and a rash, which could signal meningitis.

Abdominal Pain

From tummy aches to belly bloat, abdominal pain is the number one non-injury reason for adult emergency room visits, according to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. The pain can be caused by a number of factors from gas or a pulled muscle to the stomach flu or more serious conditions like appendicitis or urinary tract infections. 

Head to the ER if... you're experiencing intense localized pain, especially in the right lower part of your abdomen or your right upper region, explains Stanton, as this could hint at an issue with your appendix or gallbladder that may require immediate surgery. Other concerning symptoms are abdominal pain accompanied by an inability to keep down any food or fluids; blood in the stool; or a severe and sudden onset of the pain.

With heart attacks as the number one killer for both American men and women, it's no surprise that sudden chest pain can be scary and is one of the leading causes of emergency room visits for adults. "Heart attacks are at the top of the list due to their frequency and potential risk," says Stanton. 

Head to the ER if... you are experiencing chest pain along with shortness of breath, decreased activity tolerance, sweating, or pain that radiates to the neck, jaw, or arms—especially if your age or family history puts you at a higher risk for heart attacks. "This is not a time for the walk-in or urgent care clinic," says Stanton. "They will just take a look and send you to the ER since they don't have the ability to deal with cardiac-related issues."

Infection can run the spectrum from a simple infected skin wound to serious forms such as kidney infections. The vast majority of infections are viral, which means they won't respond to antibiotics and can be treated at home with over-the-counter symptom management until the virus passes. The key then is to look at the severity of the symptoms. "The more severe infections are sepsis (infection throughout the body), pneumonia , meningitis, and infections in people who have weakened immune systems," says Stanton.

Head to the ER... based on the severity of your symptoms. "You want to show up at the ER if there are any concerns, such as confusion, lethargy, low blood pressure , or inability to tolerate any oral fluids," says Stanton. "These may suggest a more sinister infection or may just need a little emergency room TLC, such as medications to help with symptom management, fluids, or possibly antibiotics, to turn the corner."

Blood in your stool or urine

Blood shouldn't ever be found in your stool or urine, so even if your symptoms don't require a trip to the ER, it's important to make an appointment with your physician as soon as possible to determine the source and decide on a treatment plan. "Blood in the urine is usually caused by some kind of infection such as a urinary tract or kidney infection or kidney stones," says Stanton. "When it comes to stool, it's often benign, but it can be the sign of something very dangerous." The number one cause is hemorrhoids followed by fissures, infections, inflammation, ulcers, or cancer. If you have a little blood with no other symptoms, make an appointment to talk with your doctor. 

Head to the ER if... you have large amounts of blood in your stool or urine, or if you have blood in your stool or urine in addition to other symptoms such as a fever, rash or fatigue, intense pain, or evidence of a blockage.

Difficulty Breathing

"Shortness of breath is one of the most common emergency department presentations," says Stanton. The most common causes are asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ( COPD ) from smoking or infections such as pneumonia. When it comes to shortness of breath, it's pretty straightforward, says Stanton. "If you can't breathe, get to the ER."

Head to the ER ... always.

Cuts, Bumps & Falls

Whether it's a knife accident chopping veggies for dinner or a misstep off the deck stairs, many cuts, bumps, and bruises can be handled at home with ice or a home first aid kit supplies.

Head to the ER if... what's supposed to be on the inside is on the outside, or what's supposed to be on the outside is on the inside, says Stanton. If you can see muscle, tendons, or bone, it requires more than just a BandAid. "It's important to get these addressed because they are fraught with potential secondary complications from infection to loss of function and ischemia [reduced blood flow]," warns Stanton.

While not pleasant, vomiting is a common symptom that can be caused by various conditions, most often viral gastroenteritis ("stomach flu") or food poisoning. Usually, vomiting can be managed with home care and a check-in with your primary care doctor.

Head to the ER if... there is blood in the vomit, significant stomach pain, or dark green bilious vomit which could suggest bowel obstruction. Another important factor with vomiting is dehydration. "If you are unable to keep anything down, you will need to get medication or treatments to help you stay hydrated," explains Stanton. "Young children can become dehydrated rather quickly, but most healthy adults can go several days before significant dehydration becomes an issue."

"Rarely is a fever anything other than an indication that you are ill," Stanton explains. It's actually a healthy sign that your body is responding to an infection. The concern then is not with the fever itself, but with what infection is causing the fever. Don't hesitate to treat it with over-the-counter medicines such as ibuprofen. 

Head to the ER if... a fever is accompanied by extreme lethargy or there are other symptoms of infection present. Most concerning to Stanton are "fevers in kids with lethargy, fevers in adults with altered mental status, and fevers with headache and neck pain ."

Loss Of Function

Numbness in your legs, slack facial muscles, a loss of bowel control—if a certain body part or body function stops working suddenly or over time, it's worth finding out why. 

Head to the ER... always, recommends Stanton. "Whether it is due to a trauma or just develops over time, any loss of function requires immediate evaluation." The two most common causes are physical trauma and stroke, both of which are serious and require medical attention. "When something is not working, don't try to 'sleep it off'," advises Stanton. "If it doesn't work, there is a reason, and we need to see if we can diagnose, reverse, or prevent ongoing problems."

The bottom line for any symptom: If you truly can't decide what to do, it's better to be safe than sorry. "Any time you have a concern or emergency, it's always better to get checked than to wait until the problem escalates," recommends Stanton.

Other things to consider

While not symptoms, per say, according to the National Institutes of Health , you should always head to the ER if you:

• Inhaled smoke or poisonous fumes
• Consumed a toxic substance or overdosed on a medication or drug
• Possibly broke a bone 
• Are having seizures
• Suffered a serious burn
• Had a severe allergic reaction and are have trouble breathing, swelling, or hives
• Are having suicidal thoughts 

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ED visit times, by state

Patients in Washington, D.C., had the highest median time spent in the emergency department, while patients in North Dakota had the lowest, CMS data shows.

The agency's "Timely and Effective Care" dataset, updated Jan. 31, tracks the average median time patients spend in the emergency department before leaving. The measures apply to children and adults treated at hospitals paid under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System or the Outpatient Prospective Payment System, as well as those that voluntarily report data on relevant measures for Medicare patients, Medicare managed care patients and non-Medicare patients. 

Data was collected from April 2022 through March 2023. Averages include data for Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense hospitals. Learn more about the methodology here .

Nationwide, the median time patients spent in the ED was 162 minutes, up from 159 minutes in the 12-month period ending in March 2022, according to CMS data. In the same period ending in 2021, this figure sat at 149 minutes.

Here's how each state and Washington, D.C., stacks up.

North Dakota — 107 minutes

Nebraska — 114

South Dakota — 115

Oklahoma — 117

Hawaii — 120

Kansas — 122

Montana — 127

Mississippi — 128

Arkansas — 131

Louisiana — 132

Wyoming — 133

Minnesota — 134

Indiana — 137

Wisconsin — 139

Alaska — 141

Idaho — 141

Colorado — 142

Texas — 145

Alabama — 146

Nevada — 146

Kentucky — 148

West Virginia — 150

Washington — 153

Missouri — 156

Georgia — 158

Tennessee — 160

New Mexico — 163

New Hampshire — 164

Florida — 168

Michigan — 169

Oregon — 169

South Carolina — 169

Virginia — 170

Maine — 174

Illinois — 176

North Carolina — 179

California — 182

Pennsylvania — 182

Vermont — 183

Connecticut — 186

Arizona — 190

New Jersey — 194

New York — 202

Delaware — 211

Massachusetts — 214

Rhode Island — 214

Maryland — 247

District of Columbia — 330

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Why Do I Have to Wait So Long to Be Seen in the Emergency Room?

Emergency departments are one part of a big, complex system that aims to treat the sickest patients first.

Why Are ER Waits So Long?

It's become something of a cliché in medicine – if you need to visit the emergency department, prepare to wait a long time. Why? That's a complex question, with a multilayered answer because there's more to emergency room wait times than just what's going on in the emergency department itself. There's also wide variability across hospital systems in how something as complex and fundamentally unpredictable as emergency medicine is administered.

So how long are Americans waiting to be seen by a doctor or licensed medical professional in an ER setting? That depends on where you live and the nature of your complaint. ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization, has compiled an interactive listing of average wait times and other ER data for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. If you take the average of each state's average wait time listed in their ER Wait Watcher tool, the national average wait time is currently 22.4 minutes.

Policies Impact Whether to Visit the ER

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But this data point doesn't reveal the wide range of average wait times across the country. Maryland has the longest average wait time before patients are seen by a doctor in the emergency room at 53 minutes. The shortest is 13 minutes, which is the average time you'll wait in both Colorado and Utah. While those averages offer some insight into what ER patients may face in various states, "averages are averages, and a patient's experience is what their experience is," says Dr. Vidor E. Friedman, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians and an emergency physician at Florida Hospital in Orlando. Averages and statistics can't show the complex variability of this critical aspect of the health care system.

When you enter the emergency room, you're stepping into a multilayered process that has a lot of working parts. First, you need to register with a triage nurse who will assess your situation based on your symptoms. (More on how triage works later.) Then, you may need to have some initial testing done. Depending on the situation, some of this can be conducted while you're waiting for the doctor to see you, but not always. Sometimes you might need to wait for a diagnostic machine, such as an X-ray, because other patients need to be screened first. And then, you may need to wait for a specialist to arrive for a consult or for a bed upstairs if you're going to be admitted. Transitioning between each step in the process takes time and can be delayed by any number of hiccups along the way.

Clearly, the time it takes for a doctor to see you in an emergency room is not a one-dimensional issue, says Dr. Gary A. Parrish, an emergency medicine physician with Orlando Health – Orlando Regional Medical Center , noting that his role as an ER doctor "is only a small piece of the picture. The emergency department is a very complex place and it's a small part of a much larger complex system. Efficiencies and flow in the emergency department are very much related to flows throughout the hospital system," he explains. In other words, if you're left waiting for a long time, it's unlikely that it's any one person's fault, rather it's a sign of a system that's overtaxed, which can happen frequently, depending on the number of people who seek care at the same time and the severity of their illnesses or injuries.

"Within any given community in a given year, one-quarter of the population will seek care in the emergency department. And in states and areas that have a high volume of tourists, the percentage is even higher," Friedman says, because when you're far from home and unwell, often the emergency department is your only option. He says in central Florida where he practices, "about one-third of the population will seek emergency care in a given year."

[See: 10 Questions Doctors Wish Their Patients Would Ask .]

At Orlando Health, Parrish says the busiest days of the week tend to be Monday and Tuesday. "The general public probably thinks that Friday and Saturday nights are really busy," because doctors' offices are closed and there might not be other options for care, "but that's not typically the case here or at many facilities." It's unclear exactly why that's the case, but one theory suggests that patients with less-severe complaints over the weekend got in to see their primary care physician on Monday and were sent onward to the ED for additional treatment.

Friedman adds that winter in central Florida is the height of tourist season, which leads to higher volumes of patients. "We staff up for (anticipated busy times) but there's still only so much space." Similarly, holidays tend to be busy at his hospital. "I don't want to dissuade people from going to the ER during the holidays, but they're going to be really busy, because doctors' offices are closed for two weeks and people are on vacation and not near their home. All these things add to the pressures during these times." In other parts of the country, winter may be a quieter time in the ER – the point is, wait times vary by community.

Understanding the ebb and flow of patient traffic and pinpointing busier times can help hospitals ensure faster service when those busier times occur. "Sometimes we can bring in an extra physician," Friedman says. "But that doesn't help us if we don't have the nursing capacity. It takes a team. The emergency department is a team sport and it really does take a village to make it work. It's a very complex system," he says and it takes a lot of coordination and constant communication to make it run smoothly and efficiently.

Carlos Carrasco, chief operating officer at Orlando Health, echoes the statement that collaboration is at the core of creating an efficient emergency department and reducing wait times. "It's a team sport and we really have to push that collaboration" at each point in the process of bringing a patient through the ER, into the hospital and discharging them when their treatment concludes.

Hospital Entry Point

The biggest reason delays occur in emergency departments, Friedman says, is the time it takes to transfer an admitted patient from the ER to an available bed upstairs in the appropriate part of the hospital. Because most patients enter the hospital via the ER, if there are no available beds, that can create a downstream problem in the emergency department.

"In this day and age, there's basically two ways to get into the hospital," Friedman says. "Either via elective surgery or the emergency department. The emergency department is really that nexus point between outpatient and the hospital," and depending on the hospital, "somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of patients are admitted to the hospital from the emergency department."

When a patient is admitted to the hospital from the ER for additional testing or treatment, there has to be a bed available to receive them in the right part of the hospital. This means that patients who no longer need those beds need to be discharged to create space, the room needs to be cleaned and so on. If there's a hitch anywhere in this system, that can lead to delays. "All those patients that are waiting for beds upstairs create capacity issues in emergency departments" and overcrowding, Friedman says.

Because of the number of things that have to happen in sequence to get a patient admitted, it can be challenging for hospitals to bring down ER wait times. "People want to look for a magic bullet in emergency departments, the one thing that makes it run efficiently, but it's really everything," Carrasco says. "When we look at our process, it's everything from how the hospital-based doctor works with the ED doctor, the diagnostics that come in, the triage process, the discharges that create capacity, the housekeeper who cleans the room, the lab results and the transporter who moves the patient from one room to another." He says by looking at improving the efficiency of each cog in the machine, that can add up to improvements across the entire system.

[See: HIPAA: Protecting Your Health Information .]

Managing Expectations

Even though it might be easy to understand pragmatically why you might have to wait, it's not fun to do so when you're not feeling well. In an effort to better manage patient expectations and help guide patients to less busy times in the ER, some hospitals advertise their wait times and have developed online appointment systems. Making an appointment to go to the ER might seem counterintuitive – we're talking about emergency care, after all, how can you possibly know ahead of time that you'll need it? But for less severe illnesses, such systems can alleviate pressure on an emergency department and make for a more efficient and pleasant experience for the patient.

Carrasco says these systems have been developed based on historical data about how busy or quiet the ER is on a given day or at a certain time of day. Although the nature of emergency medicine is that it's unpredictable, within that vast variability, patterns and trends do emerge over time and shifting patients to those anticipated quiet times can reduce crowding. "It's less appointment-scheduling and more of a prediction," he says. "We know when we're going to have a little bit of capacity," and the system tells patients when those times are likely to be. The system screens for true emergencies and will divert patients to the ER immediately if it seems like there's a life-threatening issue. But for lower-risk complaints, it can help move patients into times when there's better capacity to treat them faster.

Triage Works

In all discussions of wait times in emergency departments, the fundamental concept of triage always comes up. From the French word "to sort," triage is a process by which patients are assigned a place in line to see a doctor based on the severity of their complaints. Its invention is often credited to Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, a French surgeon who served during the Napoleonic wars. Because it was elegantly simple in its desire to treat all patients by need rather than by order of arrival, it stuck and has become a widely-used approach to emergency medicine.

The emergency department closest to you likely uses some form of triage, so if you enter the department via ambulance after a horrific car crash, you'll probably be seen immediately. Those with a small cut that needs a stitch or two or an indeterminate tummy ache may be asked to wait a little longer to see a doctor if those symptoms do not appear to be life-threatening.

"Unless you have patients who present to your emergency department in single-file fashion, then at some point, you're going to have to decide who comes first," Parrish says. "Unlike most industries, this is not a first-come, first-served basis; we need to take care of the sickest patients first."

This determination of who's sickest isn't always a straightforward calculation, but it's being made by a triage nurse or other clinical staffer who's trained in what to look for in determining severity of illness or injury. "That clinical staff member is making an 'art of medicine' judgment call based on vital signs and chief complaint," Parrish says, and they are assigning the patient a place in the triage queue based on this information. But things can change, and the patient may suddenly take a turn for the worse. In those cases, their standing in the line should be advanced.

[See: 14 Things You Didn't Know About Nurses .]

Shorten Your Wait

If you're in the emergency room and your condition deteriorates while you're waiting, communicate that change to personnel on site. Advocate for yourself if it seems that things are getting worse. That's one of the few things that you as a patient can do in the moment to reduce wait times, but it's important to remember that the point of triage is to care for the sickest people first. If you're not the sickest, try to be patient and understand that the people you're interacting with are balancing a lot of other patients and demands.

Parrish also recommends doing a little prep work before you have an emergency. "Find out what health care facility and resources are available to you" locally, so that you know whether certain facilities specialize in specific emergencies such as stroke, cardiac events or trauma. If you think you're having one of those problems and have the capacity to direct where you end up, aim for the emergency department that's best equipped to deal with your symptoms.

Similarly, if you have a less severe issue, head for a so-called low-acuity center, such as an urgent care office . If you can wait to see your primary care physician instead, you may be able to bypass the emergency department altogether and connect directly with the right specialist at the hospital, Parrish says.

You should also know yourself. What medical problems do you have? What medications are you taking? What allergies do you have? "Those are the three main questions that we have when patients present to the ED," Parrish says, so know the answers and do your best to communicate clearly with the triage nurse and any other clinical staff you interact with about what's going on so they can evaluate and treat you appropriately.

12 Common Medical Emergencies

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Emergency Room Visit: When to Go, What to Expect, Wait Times, and Cost

Knowing when and why to go for an emergency room visit can help you plan for care in the event of a medical emergency.

How much does it cost to go to an emergency room?

Emergency Room (ER) costs can vary greatly depending on what type of medical care you need. How much you pay for the visit depends on your health insurance plan. Most health plans may require you to pay something out-of-pocket for an emergency room visit. A visit to the ER may cost more if you have a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and you have not met your plan’s annual deductible. HDHP's typically offer lower monthly premiums and higher deductibles than traditional health plans. Your plan will start paying for eligible medical expenses once you’ve met the plan’s annual deductible. Here are some tips to pay less out of pocket .

When should I go to an emergency room?

Emergency rooms are often very busy because many people don’t know what type of care they need, so they immediately go to the ER when they are sick or hurt. You should make an emergency room visit for any condition that’s considered life-threatening.

Life-threatening conditions include, but are not limited to, things like a serious allergic reaction, trouble breathing or speaking, disorientation, a loss of consciousness, or any physical trauma.

If you need to be treated for problems that are considered non-life threatening, such as an earache, fever and flu symptoms, minor animal bites, mild asthma, or a mild urinary tract infection, consider seeing your doctor or visiting an urgent care center or convenience care clinic.

What is the cost of an emergency room visit without insurance?

Emergency room costs with or without health insurance can be very high. If you have health insurance, review your plan documents for details on the costs associated with your plan, including your plan deductible, coinsurance, and copay requirements.

If you don’t have insurance, you may be required to pay the full cost of your treatment, which can vary by facility and the type of treatment required. Always plan ahead for sudden sickness, injury, or other medical needs, so you know where to go and how much it could cost. If you need medical care, but it’s not life-threatening you may not have to go to the ER—there are other more affordable options:

• Urgent care center: Staffed by doctors, nurses, and other medical staff who can treat things like earaches, urinary tract infections, minor cuts, nausea, vomiting, etc. Wait times may be shorter and using an urgent care center could save you hundreds of dollars when compared to an ER.
• Convenience care clinic: Walk-in clinics are typically located in a pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens, etc.) or supermarket/retail store (Target, Walmart, etc.). These clinics are staffed with physician assistants and nurse practitioners who can provide care for minor cold, fever, flu, rashes and bruises, head lice, allergies, sinus/ear infections, urinary tract infections, even flu and shingles shots. No appointments are needed, wait times are usually minimal, and a convenience care clinic costs much less than an ER.

Plan ahead for when you need medical care. You may not need an emergency room visit and the bill that could come with it.

What are common emergency room wait times?

Emergency room wait times vary according to hospital and location. Patients in the ER are seen based on how serious their condition is. This means that the patients with life-threatening conditions are treated first, and those with non-life threatening conditions have to wait.

To help reduce ER wait times, health care facilities encourage you to plan ahead for care, so when you’re sick or hurt, you know if the ER is right for your medical condition.

An emergency room visit can take up time and money if your problem is not life-threatening. Consider other care options, such as an urgent care center, convenience care clinic, your doctor, or a virtual doctor visit (video chat/telehealth)—all of which could be faster and save you money out of your own pocket if the medical problem is non-life threatening.

If you have health insurance, be sure to check your plan documents to see what types of care options are eligible for coverage under your plan, including whether or not you need to stay in your plan’s network.

Is taking an ambulance to the emergency room free?

An ambulance ride is not free, but your insurance may cover some of the costs for the ride, as well as the emergency room visit. Check your plan benefits to see what out-of-pocket expenses you are responsible for when it comes to an ambulance ride and a visit to the ER.

Plan ahead for times you may need immediate medical care. Review the details of your health plan so you know the costs for an ER visit should you ever need it. Know when it’s best to go to the emergency room and when going somewhere else, like an urgent care center, convenience care clinic, your doctor, or even a virtual doctor visit (video chat/telehealth), is the right option that may save you time and money.

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6 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Emergency Room Visit, From an ER Doctor

By Esther Choo, M.D., M.P.H.

As an emergency medicine physician, being in the emergency room (ER) is my comfort zone. But I’ve also experienced the ER as a worried spouse and mother, so I know it can be a mysterious, frightening, and frustrating place for most people. Because life is so unpredictable, it’s a safe bet that you or a loved one will find yourself in an ER at some point. With that in mind, I’ve assembled a number of tips to maximize the likelihood that your next trip there goes smoothly and that you get the best care possible.

To supplement my own opinions on this topic, I polled an online group I’m part of called EM Docs, which is made up of more than 15,000 emergency physicians from around the country. They’re the doctors I go to when I have a tough case or when I need to brainstorm ways to improve the care we give.

The following six tips are what we came up with, so keep them in mind next time you or a loved one find yourselves in the ER.

Having a full understanding of your medical history helps us doctors provide care that fits your needs. If you have the option, seek emergency treatment at a hospital where you’ve previously received care, since it will already have your records. Even in the age of electronic medical records, hospitals may not have direct access to information about visits that occurred outside their own system. You may have a long-time auto mechanic who knows the quirks of your car. Similarly, if you’ve had an operation or other specialty treatment, your previous doctors who’ve been “under the hood” have a familiarity with your case, and that may be quite important to your care.

Obviously in an emergency, going to your regular hospital isn’t always possible. So, at a minimum, always bring with you a list of your medical issues , medications (including dosages), allergies , and names of the doctors who provide you with routine care. Having this information printed out on a single card that you carry in your wallet will make sure you’re prepared for any unexpected hospital visit.

There’s no way around it: Waiting is part of the emergency care experience. Emergency medicine doctors are the least patient people on the planet ( trust me , we hate waiting even more than you do). Unfortunately, the system is designed to keep each doctor and nurse maximally busy, and too often, the sheer number of patients (and the really dire cases) take a lot of our time and push us beyond comfortable capacity. We’re simply unable to get to everyone quickly. I’m optimistic that advances in hospital flow (like figuring out better predictive models to help us identify surges in patient volume ahead of time and respond to them quickly) will minimize these waits eventually. In the meantime, there are some ways to make good use of your time in the waiting room:

• Notify your primary care physician about your emergency visit, and arrange a follow up appointment for after your ER treatment.
• Think through all of your symptoms, and how you can relay them to the nurses and physicians succinctly and completely.
• If you can’t recall your medications or allergies, it’s a good time to call home or your pharmacy to make sure you have a complete list.
• In some cases, we may ask about your end of life wishes . If you don’t have this paperwork, think about who might have it.
• Make some phone calls to work out logistics ahead of time: Who can give you a ride home if you receive medications that make you too groggy to drive home? Who can feed your cat or pick up your kid in case the visit takes longer than you anticipated or you need to be admitted? Is there someone who can come spend some time in the ER with you to help relay information to the doctors and nurses, and be a second set of ears about test results and the care plan?
• If you’re really upset about the wait and want someone to know about it, write an email to the hospital administration while you’re waiting. That way, you have filed a complaint, and can use your face time with the doctors and nurses focusing on what brought you to the hospital.

We understand you’re feeling awful, and have probably been waiting for too long while feeling that way. If you’re grumpy by the time you see us, we get it. In fact, we’re braced to face much worse—angry, intoxicated, and even violent patients. But the longer the wait, the more likely the doctors and nurses have been running their tails off without a chance to attend to their own basic biologic needs (e.g., eating and peeing). So when we’re met with patience and respect, it is so awesome. It allows the staff to use all their emotional energy focusing on the most pressing problem at hand: your health.

Emergency training gives us a certain approach that’s fairly routine and focused on making sure you, well, don’t die. However, the things that are foremost on our minds may not align with the actual concerns you have. I’ll give you an example: I once cared for a young man with acute, severe knee pain who’d been in the ER for three hours. I evaluated him for a host of things that would require immediate treatment and hospitalization. The workup did not reveal anything concerning and I decided that it was just muscular inflammation from a recent strenuous workout. I gave him instructions for taking care of the injury, said goodbye, and was leaving the room when he said, with a little embarrassment, “So, doctor, just to be sure…it’s not cancer?”

By Jenna Ryu

By Julia Ries

It turns out the patient had a nephew who died from bone cancer and he’d linked his mysterious knee pain to that diagnosis, which is what brought him to the ER in the middle of the night. He didn’t mention it when he arrived or during my initial evaluation, and it was such an unlikely diagnosis that it didn’t make it onto my list of suspects. Once he mentioned it, I was able to sit down with him and go over all the reasons I did not think that it was cancer , to his great relief.

So don’t be embarrassed to express your fears up front, even if you think they sound crazy or weird. Trust me, we’ve heard stranger things, and it helps us to know what’s motivating your visit to us. That way we can address your biggest concerns up front.

ER doctors are very good at certain things, like recognizing when people are vitally sick with life- or limb-threatening conditions, staying cool when people are in the process of dying, and stabilizing severely injured patients. We are, admittedly, not so good at other things. We may not hand you a tidy diagnosis. At the end of your visit, we may tell you a list of things we are pretty sure you don’t have, rather than telling you what you do have. The longer your symptoms have been going on, the more likely it is that it is not something common or straightforward, so the less likely it is that we will be able to crack the puzzle during your ER visit.

Also, we can’t just run any test at any time. I wish we could! We’re always on the lookout for when we need to get special tests, like MRIs , but we generally can only get them in a handful of truly dire situations. The everyday tools of the emergency physician are the simple stuff: listening to your symptoms, reviewing your vital signs, and doing a physical examination. After that, we may advise that you receive some immediate testing.

But as often as not, we may feel that you need no further testing at all, at least not during your ER visit. While we do admit some patients who are too sick to manage at home, or who need an immediate therapy or a procedure that can only happen in the hospital, the majority of patients get discharged home with an initial course of treatment (e.g., pain medications or antibiotics) and are advised to follow up with a primary care physician. For those without primary care, we’ll provide a list of local clinics and physicians so they can establish care.

Similarly, we don’t always have specialists on call who can come in at any time. Someone out there—someone who obviously doesn’t work in an ER—created the myth that you can walk into any emergency department and get a plastic surgeon to sew up a simple facial laceration. That’s not how it works. Part of our job is to determine which conditions require a specialist, and which we can manage by ourselves. Often, the answer is that the emergency doc can handle it—and if we can’t, we’ll give you the next steps to get the care you need.

Oh, and we don’t pull teeth.

In almost any ER, we'll ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of 1 to 10. There’s a common misperception about the pain scale; namely, that you need to use the very top of the scale in order to be taken seriously. Almost every shift, someone tells me their pain is “a 12” on a scale of 1 to 10. Ten, to be clear, represents the worst pain possible in human experience; a 10 means a baby is exiting your uterus or a knife has been lodged in your back. Please don’t give us a 10 unless one of these conditions is present.

The pain scale is something we use in conjunction with your physical exam, vital signs, and other clinical data, to characterize your pain, guide your workup, and track the trajectory of your pain and your response to treatment. It's not used as a device to blow you off or to be stingy treating your pain. We never say, “Oh, just a 8? It must be nothing.” Eight is very bad. So is six and in fact, so is four—this is a pain scale, after all, not a fun scale. Picking the right number helps us get an accurate sense of what you are experiencing.

Many people do not have a good understanding of the instructions they are given when they are discharged from the ER. You may be very eager to get home after a long stretch there, and you may feel tired, groggy, and not fully recovered from whatever landed you in the ER in the first place. However, make sure you receive the printed-out discharge instructions, that someone (a nurse or doctor) goes over them with you carefully, and that it all makes sense to you. If you have a friend or family member with you, they should also listen in, as they may be able to help you remember some of the details of your care plan later.

The instructions should include, in general: the doctor’s impression about what may have caused your symptoms; suggested treatments for your symptoms; who to follow up with and when; and what kinds of symptoms should bring you back to the ER, rather than waiting for outpatient follow-up. If you're prescribed medications, make sure you understand what each one is for, how long you should take them, if they are to be taken on a set schedule, or if you only take them as needed. Ensure you receive the physical prescription or that it's faxed to your pharmacy. If you're told to follow up with a specialist, ask if you need to call for the appointment or if that clinic will be calling you. A few extra minutes making sure you understand the plan before you leave the hospital may give you peace of mind later.

We work in a system with some inherent limitations that doesn’t always conform to people’s hopes and expectations, and I can’t promise it’ll be as smooth or as quick as you would like. But I promise we’ll do our best to work with you and make sure you get the care you need, especially if you follow these guidelines straight from emergency doctors.

Esther Choo, M.D., M.P.H, is currently an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.

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ER visit times: Here’s how long patients spend in emergency rooms in each state

D ata released this summer from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated the average emergency room (ER) visit times for each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Patients in Washington, D.C. had the longest average visit — at 5 hours and 29 minutes.

The shortest median visit was in North Dakota, where patients spent an average of 1 hour and 48 minutes in the ER.

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The data came from the CMS "Timely and Effective Care" measurements, collected between October 2021 and September 2022.

They were released on July 26.

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The numbers included visits of children and adults whose care was covered by Medicare’s Inpatient Prospective Payment System or Outpatient Prospective Payment System.

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Also included were visits from hospitals that chose to report visit information for Medicare patients, Medicare managed care patients and non-Medicare patients. 

Below are the average visit times by state, from shortest to longest, as compiled by Becker’s Hospital Review:

• North Dakota — 1 hour and 48 minutes
• Nebraska — 1 hour and 55 minutes
• South Dakota — 1 hour and 55 minutes
• Hawaii — 1 hour and 56 minutes
• Iowa — 1 hour and 59 minutes
• Oklahoma — 1 hour and 59 minutes
• Kansas — 2 hours and 4 minutes
• Montana — 2 hours and 7 minutes
• Mississippi — 2 hours and 9 minutes
• Idaho — 2 hours and 12 minutes
• Louisiana — 2 hours and 12 minutes
• Arkansas — 2 hours and 14 minutes
• Minnesota — 2 hours and 14 minutes
• Wyoming — 2 hours and 15 minutes
• Utah — 2 hours and 17 minutes
• Indiana — 2 hours and 18 minutes
• Colorado — 2 hours and 21 minutes
• Alaska — 2 hours and 23 minutes
• Kentucky — 2 hours and 23 minutes
• Texas — 2 hours and 24 minutes
• Alabama — 2 hours and 25 minutes
• Wisconsin — 2 hours and 26 minutes
• Nevada — 2 hours and 27 minutes
• Washington — 2 hours and 27 minutes
• West Virginia — 2 hours and 33 minutes
• Missouri — 2 hours and 35 minutes
• Georgia — 2 hours and 37 minutes
• Ohio — 2 hours and 37 minutes
• Tennessee — 2 hours and 40 minutes
• Florida — 2 hours and 44 minutes
• New Hampshire — 2 hours and 44 minutes
• Maine — 2 hours and 45 minutes
• New Mexico — 2 hours and 46 minutes
• South Carolina — 2 hours and 48 minutes
• Oregon — 2 hours and 51 minutes
• Michigan — 2 hours and 52 minutes
• Virginia — 2 hours and 52 minutes
• Illinois — 2 hours and 54 minutes
• North Carolina — 2 hours and 54 minutes
• Vermont — 2 hours and 58 minutes
• California — 3 hours
• Pennsylvania — 3 hours
• Connecticut — 3 hours and 2 minutes
• New Jersey — 3 hours and 11 minutes
• Arizona — 3 hours and 13 minutes
• New York — 3 hours and 21 minutes
• Delaware — 3 hours and 30 minutes
• Massachusetts — 3 hours and 33 minutes
• Rhode Island — 3 hours and 34 minutes
• Maryland — 4 hours and 2 minutes
• District of Columbia — 5 hours and 29 minutes

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Median visit times have been on the rise amid staffing shortages and an increase in patient volume .

The average visit time nationwide is 160 minutes, up from 155 minutes as of September 2021 and 143 minutes in 2020, per CMS data.

Between 2011 and 2021, emergency department visits among patients less than 65 years old that were paid by Medicaid rose from 34% to 45.3%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews/health  

Original article source: ER visit times: Here’s how long patients spend in emergency rooms in each state

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Why An ER Visit Can Cost So Much — Even For Those With Health Insurance

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Vox reporter Sarah Kliff spent over a year reading thousands of ER bills and investigating the reasons behind the costs, including hidden fees, overpriced supplies and out-of-network doctors.

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Emergency Room Visit Statistics Accross the Country

How many patients visit emergency rooms in america.

Hospital emergency rooms across the country make up much of the healthcare industry and are directly responsible for caring for the bulk of the nation’s patients when something suddenly goes wrong. From pneumonia to heart attacks, these locations stabilize patients and help get them on the path to wellness once again.

Injuries Are One Of The Most Common Reasons For ER Visits

According to the CDC , nearly 136 million patients visit emergency rooms in the United States per year, with around 30 percent of those visits relating to injuries.

If you’ve ever been curious about just how many patients your local emergency room cares for, you’re in luck. Let’s take a look at a few of the most important statistics impacting care. We’ll also show you how visiting a freestanding emergency room can improve care waiting times and the overall patient experience.

Can The Risk Of Emergency Increase In Cities & Urbanized Areas?

The yearly national average of emergency room patients according to the CDC is 42 for every 100 people or about 42 percent. Around 63 percent of ER patients are between 18 and 65 years old. An incredible 85 percent of these patients are located in metropolitan areas, making it statistically more likely that you’ll visit if you live in these types of areas.

Should You Avoid Living In Densely Populated Areas?

These statistics may deter you from choosing to live in urbanized areas, but this is a false link. Metropolitan areas have a higher population density, and that makes visit rates higher simply because there are more people living nearby in the first place. Higher populations also increase wait times, in most cases.

Living in a less populated area doesn’t decrease your chances of requiring an ER trip—it simply reduces the number of people who visit the ER in the first place.

How Much Time Will You Usually Wait For Emergency Treatment?

Time is the most critical factor when treating emergent health conditions. Serious emergencies require a trip to the emergency room , where patients are then triaged by nurses based on severity. Severely injured patients see the doctor first while non-urgent cases may experience a wait.

A Visit To A Freestanding Emergency Room Will Reduce ER Wait Times

Additional CDC data shows that in full-scale emergency rooms within hospitals, patients with broken bones wait around 54 minutes before receiving any pain medications, in many cases. If your case requires you to move to a hospital room, the wait can be even longer. The average time it takes for a typical ER patient to go home is 135 minutes.

Visiting a freestanding emergency room shaves off some of this time because physicians can focus only on patients and not on other hospital requirements. Rather than spending two to four hours going through the entire process of treatment at a hospital’s emergency room, you can be seen and addressed right away.

Contact A 24-Hour Freestanding Emergency Room Today!

The typical emergency waiting time is too long for certain scenarios, which require a more timely response. A better solution exists at The Emergency Center. TEC removes the waiting time from standard ER visits and will assess your needs the moment you walk in the door. You can be sure that you’ll receive quality care at TEC. When accessing care is critical, visit TEC!

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Emergency Department Visits

Data are for the U.S.

• Number of visits: 139.8 million
• Number of injury-related visits (includes poisoning and adverse effects): 40.0 million
• Number of visits per 100 persons: 42.7
• Number of emergency department visits resulting in hospital admission: 18.3 million
• Number of emergency department visits resulting in admission to critical care unit: 2.8 million
• Percent of visits with patient seen in fewer than 15 minutes: 41.8%
• Percent of visits resulting in hospital admission: 13.1%
• Percent of visits resulting in transfer to a different (psychiatric or other) hospital: 2.4%

Source: National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2021 National Summary Tables, table 1, 3, 15, 23 [PDF – 830 KB]

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• Emergency Department Visit Rates for Assault: United States, 2019–2021
• Emergency Department Visits Related to Mental Health Disorders Among Children and Adolescents: United States, 2018–2021 [PDF – 999 KB]
• Trends in Emergency Department Visits Among People Younger Than Age 65 by Insurance Status: United States, 2010–2021 [PDF – 505 KB]
• Emergency Department Visits Among Children Aged 0–17 by Selected Characteristics: United States, 2019–2020
• Emergency Department Visit Rates for Motor Vehicle Crashes by Selected Characteristics in the United States, 2019–2020
• Emergency Department Visits Related to Mental Health Disorders Among Adults, by Race and Hispanic Ethnicity: United States, 2018-2020 [PDF – 387 KB]
• Emergency Department Visits with Suicidal Ideation: United States, 2016-2020
• Opioids Prescribed to Adults at Discharge from Emergency Departments: United States, 2017–2020
• Emergency Department Visits by Adults With Chronic Conditions Associated With Severe COVID-19 Illness: United States, 2017–2019  [PDF – 1,013 KB]
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CT patients are waiting days in emergency rooms for a hospital bed. Lawmakers want to know why

These days, Dale Cunningham is taking extra time to appreciate the sights and sounds of spring in New England.

On a recent walk through a park nearby, Cunningham soaked up the sun and stopped to appreciate a passing songbird.

“It's so good that spring is finally here,” Cunningham said. “I'm just glad to be alive right now.”

She has all the more reason to be joyful.

In January, Cunningham, 69, showed up at the emergency room for what her doctor thought was a potentially critical gallbladder condition.

“The waiting room was very full of patients sitting on the window sills, people were vomiting in the trash cans,” she said. “If I didn't know someone there, lord knows how long I would have waited.”

Cunningham said she was admitted into the ER after making a few calls — she works at the hospital, Yale-owned Lawrence + Memorial in New London, as a neonatal nurse.

At the ER she learned she would need to be hospitalized, but an inpatient room was not available.

“I stayed there [in the ER] for two days, almost,” she said. “There was 40 people waiting for beds.”

Later, doctors would tell her that she had stage 2 bile duct cancer – part of her liver had atrophied and died.

Cunningham’s experience waiting for care in the emergency department is not unique. In ERs across Connecticut, patients are facing increasingly long wait times. Federal data shows a typical ER visit now lasts more than three hours.

Connecticut is tied for seventh place in the entire country for longest emergency room visits.

The reasons are multifold.

Lawrence + Memorial said in a statement that ER overcrowding has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic — the acute shortage in skilled nursing, home care, and rehab, is delaying moving patients out of the hospital.

Connecticut Children’s ER sees around 60,000 patients a year with more children presenting with more complex issues that have to be evaluated in the emergency department, said Dr. John Brancato, division head of emergency medicine at the hospital.

“So they are there for a longer period of time,” he said. “And then there's a well known increase in patients with behavioral health concerns.”

Brancato is member of a state committee — The Emergency Department Boarding and Crowding Working Group — advising lawmakers to step in and address what they say is a public health crisis.

At the state Capitol in April, two of Brancato’s colleagues on the committee — ER doctors Christopher Moore, professor of emergency medicine at Yale, and Gregory Shangold, president of the Connecticut State Medical Society — met with state Sen. Saud Anwar, chair of the Public Health Committee, to help shepherd S.B. 181 through the House.

The bill requires hospitals to start reporting information next year about back-ups in the emergency department, including the number of patients in the ER, the number waiting to get into the ER, the number waiting for a hospital bed to open up, and total wait times.

“We see 50%, 60%, 70% of the emergency department is occupied by patients waiting for beds up in the hospital,” Shangold said.

The bill won unanimous approval in the Senate, and passed in the House with 140 of the 149 voting members in favor.

Moore said much like the proverbial frog boiling slowly in a pot of water, it has become normalized to take care of patients, even sick, elderly patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, in the hallways. “That really shouldn't be the norm, but we've gotten used to it gradually over time,” he said.

In an interim report published earlier this year, the workgroup pointed to emergency room boarding as the primary driver behind increasing wait times. Boarding occurs when staff decide to admit a patient to the hospital, but the facility doesn’t have enough capacity to provide an inpatient bed, leaving the patient waiting in the ER. Some of the factors that drive boarding are insufficient staffing, delays in cleaning available beds, and delays transferring patients to other facilities.

“Connecticut has the opportunity to put a lens on it, to understand that it is a patient care issue, which is why we are asking people to look at the data and to frame it as a quality measure,” Moore said.

The Connecticut Hospital Association was in favor of the amended bill and said it appreciates the support of the legislature.

Finding solutions is important because backups in the emergency room can cause serious harm to patients. Studies show ER crowding increases exposure to medical errors, like administering the wrong medication. It also slows down treatment of serious conditions like heart attacks and strokes.

“If somebody is going to have an emergency and they go to the emergency room and nobody can see you, there’s no room to be seen or there’s no place to be in the emergency room, your outcome is going to be poor,” Anwar said.

Patient testimonials in support of the bill paint a dire picture.

Christine Macaluso said she went to the Yale ER on Goose Lane with what she thought was appendicitis on Nov. 8, 2023.

Macaluso needed to be transferred to the Yale campus on York Street for further testing, but was held at Goose Lane for almost 20 hours while waiting for a bed to open and for the transport service, she wrote.

“While the staff at Goose Lane was attentive, they only had the resources to control my pain, not to do the necessary testing that eventually led to a cancer diagnosis. The ER did not have food or other medications I needed [for preexisting conditions] available,” she said. “A 20 hour wait in the ER, when in pain with no idea why, is too long.”

Nancy Sylvain wrote in her testimony that she stayed for 52 hours in a hallway in the ER of Yale New Haven Hospital. “I was in extreme pain, unable to sit, stand, or lay down for more than a few minutes at a time,” she said. “After finally getting a bed, I exhibited stroke symptoms and was whisked away by the stroke team.”

It turned out that Sylvain did not have a stroke, but she had meningitis in her brain and spinal cord with Bell’s Palsy as a result of undiagnosed Lyme disease.

“My experience was unfortunately not uncommon, as the emergency room was packed with other patients also waiting for a bed,” she wrote. “I was shocked to see that patients like myself also lined many hallways, as the emergency room was too full to accommodate them.”

Michael Holmes, chief operating officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, said part of the challenge is that hospitals serve as a safety net for the community, and never turn away patients.

“Other parts of the health care delivery close at five o'clock. They're not open on weekends,” Holmes said. “Your local emergency department and their team are here 24/7, 365.”

And because of that load, patients and families continue to struggle.

In the case of Dr. Sue Sundaresan’s 87-year-old father-in-law, the family said ER doctors at Hartford Hospital were too stretched to attend to a non life-threatening situation.

“Every time he swallowed, every time he ate, his nose would start bleeding,” she said.

Sundaresan tried to get a nurse to stop the bleeding and spoke to other ER staff, but she said no one came. “So now it's pouring down his face. We have nothing to mop it with,” she said. “I literally had to go outside and find towels to actually close this up.”

“I don't know if there was a shortage of staffing, or it was just a lack of empathy to have an 87-year-old man sitting there who had not eaten since the previous night,” she said. “No one was coming to check on him because even though he was [in the ER], I think it was not a life threatening emergency."

Sundaresan’s father-in-law was first seen at an urgent care for the nosebleed, where he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and transported by ambulance to Hartford Hospital.

She said when he was taken to an in-patient room after waiting for close to nine hours in the ER, an ENT specialist told her that he should have been seen sooner for the nose bleed.

A medical doctor herself, Sundaresan said she knew that her father-in-law would not be able to get sedated for the procedure he needed to undergo to reverse the sudden abnormal heart rhythm.

Hartford Hospital said the organization is committed to identifying solutions to ER overcrowding, including filing requests to add more bed capacity in some locations.

A spokesperson said recent openings that include 29 urgent care centers, five pharmacy clinics and three virtual health stations located in places like grocery stores.

“All of these offer improved access to patients who need non life-threatening medical care,” the spokesperson said.

Lining up financial incentives

Physicians say there are differences between institutions in terms of the reasons why some hospitals board more than others.

One common denominator is incentives.

“If someone is admitted to the hospital, the hospital’s going to get the same amount whether they have their whole stay in a hallway in the emergency department or they have a private in-patient bed,” Moore said. “I’m not saying that the hospitals don’t want to get them to an in-patient bed but it’s not necessarily financially beneficial to do so.”

The other possibility is the scheduling of surgeries. “For example, if the hospitals wanted to institute surgical smoothing – scheduling of elective surgical procedures on nights and weekends – that would be a way to address the issue,” he said.

Moore’s observations mirror those of several ER physicians across the country .

But the Connecticut Hospital Association strongly disagreed that decisions about ER patient admissions or inpatient bed availability are made based on financial incentives, and that providing surgeries to patients causes ER boarding.

In a January survey by the state committee on ER boarding in Connecticut, ER doctors said the Medicare three day rule was exacerbating the crisis. Under the rule, people insured by Medicare must spend three days in the hospital as in-patients before they’re eligible for coverage for treatment in a skilled nursing facility. When in-patient beds aren’t available, people spend those days in the emergency room. This rule was relaxed during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since been reinstituted.

Solutions underway statewide 

One solution is expanding hospital capacity. Connecticut Children’s is opening an eight-story unit next year and the ER at Yale’s St Raphael's campus is adding 51 treatment spaces. And the new ER annex at Yale New Haven Hospital has 35 additional beds.

Lawrence + Memorial is encouraging patients to review ER wait times on the hospital website to determine if perhaps urgent care or walk-in centers might be more appropriate.

ER boarding is the result of longstanding health care problems — population health, increasing acuity of patients, primary care access, prior insurance authorization, and transportation to other medical facilities, Dr. Arjun Venkatesh, chief of emergency medicine at Yale, said.

“We need the rest of that outpatient system to be lifted and elevated so that there's access to care beyond that acute event that happens,” he said. “And that's true for overdose. It's true for a stroke. It's true for every other kind of condition you can think of.”

Yale created a post-discharge extended care clinic where patients discharged from the ER could go for follow-up care if they do not have a primary care physician. Yale has also partnered with its urgent care clinics to take patients initially stabilized in the ER for follow-on care, and established a dedicated psychiatric emergency unit.

“The challenge is that as we expand and as we create these alternative pathways to care, the rest of the broader system is shrinking,” Venkatesh said.

Lawmakers should have a better understanding of the circumstances by early next year. State hospitals are required to file reports on emergency room delays and potential solutions by March 2025.

Connecticut Public’s Michayla Savitt contributed to this story.

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Some Hudson Valley ER wait times spiked 20% last year. Is your local hospital on our list?

As lawmakers and hospitals battled over state health care funding, some patients in the Hudson Valley area faced some of the longest emergency room wait times in New York, federal data show.

While state budget debates  prioritized closing Medicaid funding gaps  to shore up safety-net hospitals, wait times at most emergency rooms in the Hudson Valley continued to rise, reaching an average of about 200 minutes between July 2022 and July 2023, the most recent federal data show. Five hospitals had ER wait times that spiked between 15% to 20% longer than the prior year.

In other words, the Hudson Valley's health system ranked among the worst in the country for delivering timely emergency room care last year, with patients on average waiting nearly 40 minutes longer than the national average, federal data show.

Where are ER wait times getting longer in the Hudson Valley?

What follows is the average time patients spent in emergency rooms before leaving the visit across the Finger Lakes from summer 2022 to summer 2023. It represents minutes and the lower the number, the shorter the wait. The percentage change is a comparison to the prior year.

• Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis: 173, up nearly 9%
• Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson: 194, a 4% decrease
• Ellenville Regional Hospital: 70, up 13%
• Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown: 254, a 16% spike
• Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern: 244, an 8% increase
• HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston: 209, a 12% jump
• Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor: 194, up 7%
• Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital: 180, down 4%
• Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital: 179, up 18%
• Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck: 167, a 3% decrease
• Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco: 224, a 20% spike
• Nyack Hospital: 228, up nearly 12%
• Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow: 202, up about 3%
• Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel: 164, a 20% decrease
• St. Anthony’s Hospital in Warwick: 164, up nearly 9%
• St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers: 243, a nearly 6% increase
• St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers: 173, a 15% jump
• St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh: 188, up 9%
• Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie: 314, a 20% spike
• Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla: 252, flat
• White Plains Hospital: 166, up about 6%.

Still, the Hudson Valley fared better than some upstate communities, with Monroe County's average ER waits at a whopping 274 minutes.

Several comparable upstate metros clocked in even worse, with Albany County at the longest waits (349 minutes) and Schenectady County ranked second worst (336 minutes). Onondaga County had the third-longest waits (287 minutes).

By contrast, Rockland County had average waits of 236 minutes. Westchester County had an average wait of about 201 minutes, while Dutchess County had waits of 240 minutes and Orange County waits averaged 167 minutes.

The statewide average ER wait was about 204 minutes, well above the 161 minutes national average.

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What New York hospitals are doing to reduce ER wait times

Still, some health systems have taken steps to boost ER staffing ratios and expand ER capacity.

Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital, for example, is in the midst of a $557 million construction project,  including tripling the size of its ER . The project expects to finish by 2027, with newly constructed ER space opening in 2026. White Plains Hospital and Northern Westchester Hospital this year also began projects that are expected to expand services at their respective emergency rooms.

Other hospitals statewide are working with state officials to address the fact children and older adults living with medically complex or behavioral health conditions experienced the most frequent and longest hospital discharge delays.

Further, nursing home backlogs and insufficient community care options fueled many of the discharge delays. Other factors driving ER wait times up included insurance coverage gaps, affordability issues and governmental approval lags, hospital groups noted.

Meanwhile, the lack of routine care for poor and low-income New Yorkers — and those with lower educational attainment and other societal disadvantages, such as  primary care deserts  — was driving preventable emergency room visits,  federal studies show .

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Experience the day the world went quiet. Experience the day the world went quiet. Experience the day the world went quiet.

• Michael Sarnoski
• John Krasinski
• Bryan Woods
• Joseph Quinn
• Djimon Hounsou

• Young Bryan

• Truck Driver

• Teacher & Boat Survivor
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Paramount has stated that this not a continuation of Part II, but more of a spin-off.
• Connections Referenced in Diminishing Returns Diminisodes: A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

New and Upcoming Horror

• When will A Quiet Place: Day One be released? Powered by Alexa
• June 28, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• A Quiet Place Part III
• London, England, UK (Location)
• Paramount Pictures
• Platinum Dunes
• Sunday Night
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track

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