Emergency room wait times vary significantly across the United States depending on factors such as hospital resources, patient volume, and staffing levels, with some states facing delays that can stretch for more than three hours.

Long stays in the emergency department often point to issues like understaffing or overcrowding, leading to delays in treatment, and often times, worser patient health outcomes.

This map visualizes the average time patients spend in the emergency department before leaving, by U.S. state and territory.

Data comes from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and is updated as of Oct. 30, 2024.

This data reflects the average time patients spend at the emergency department, from the time they arrive to the time they leave, and excludes those who died in the emergency department, left without the approval of a licensed provider, or lacked documented discharge destinations.

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