The District of Columbia has the highest rate of patients who left hospital emergency departments without being seen at 8%, CMS data showed.
CMS's "Timely and Effective Care" dataset, updated July 31, tracks the percentage of patients who left an ED before being seen in 2022. The measures apply to children and adults treated at hospitals paid under the inpatient or the outpatient prospective payment systems, as well as hospitals that voluntarily report data on relevant measures for Medicare, Medicare-managed care and non-Medicare patients. Averages include data for Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense hospitals. Learn more about the methodology here.
The national average showed 3% of patients left EDs before being seen in 2022. In 2020 and 2019, the rate was 2%.
Here are the states — including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico — by the percentage of patients who left before being seen, listed from lowest to highest:
Nevada — 1%
Puerto Rico — 1%
Wyoming — 1%
Alaska — 2%
Colorado — 2%
Connecticut — 2%
Florida — 2%
Hawaii — 2%
Idaho — 2%
Indiana — 2%
Kansas — 2%
Nebraska — 2%
South Dakota — 2%
Texas — 2%
Utah — 2%
Virginia — 2%
Wisconsin — 2%
Alabama — 3%
Arkansas — 3%
California — 3%
Georgia — 3%
Iowa — 3%
Kentucky — 3%
Louisiana — 3%
Maine — 3%
Minnesota — 3%
Montana — 3%
North Dakota — 3%
New Jersey — 3%
New York — 3%
Ohio — 3%
Oklahoma — 3%
Pennsylvania — 3%
South Carolina — 3%
Tennessee — 3%
Vermont — 3%
West Virginia — 3%
Arizona — 4%
Michigan — 4%
Missouri — 4%
Mississippi — 4%
North Carolina — 4%
New Hampshire — 4%
New Mexico — 4%
Illinois — 5%
Massachusetts — 5%
Maryland — 5%
Oregon — 5%
Washington — 5%
Delaware — 6%
Rhode Island — 6%
District of Columbia — 8%