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 in October 2024, 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 in the calendar year 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 163 minutes, up from 161 minutes in the 12-month period ending in November 2023, according to CMS data. In the same period ending in 2022, this figure sat at 157 minutes.
Here's how each state and Washington, D.C., stacks up.
District of Columbia — 314 minutes
Maryland — 250
Rhode Island — 218
Massachusetts — 216
Delaware — 211
New York — 204
North Carolina — 191
New Jersey — 191
Connecticut — 189
California — 186
Pennsylvania — 183
Vermont — 179
Illinois — 175
Maine — 175
Arizona — 170
Virginia — 166
Michigan — 165
New Hampshire — 165
South Carolina — 163
New Mexico — 162
Florida — 161
Georgia — 160
Tennessee — 158
Oregon — 157
Washington — 157
Ohio — 156
Kentucky — 155
Missouri — 155
Alabama — 146
Texas — 146
West Virginia — 145
Nevada — 144
Idaho — 142
Alaska — 140
Wisconsin — 138
Colorado — 135
Wyoming — 135
Arkansas — 133
Louisiana — 132
Utah — 132
Mississippi — 127
Montana — 127
Minnesota — 126
Indiana — 125
Kansas — 121
Oklahoma — 120
Iowa — 119
Hawaii — 117
Nebraska — 114
South Dakota — 113
North Dakota — 110