The average patient spent four hours and seven minutes in the ED in 2009, up seven minutes from 2008 and 31 minutes from 2002.
The data, part of Press Ganey’s “2010 Emergency Department Pulse Report: Patient Perspectives on American Health Care,” is based on evaluations of more than 1.5 million patients treated at 1,893 hospitals in 2009.
In terms of wait time, Utah had the worst performance, with a staggering average emergency department time spent of eight hours and 17 minutes — nearly an hour and a half longer than the state’s average time spent last year.
Iowa had the shortest average time spent at just under three hours (2:55), followed by South Dakota (2:59), North Dakota (3:07), Nebraska (3:08) and Minnesota (3:11).
Nevada made the biggest improvement in 2009, reducing average wait time by 66 minutes since 2008.
Despite longer wait times, patient satisfaction with U.S. hospital emergency departments stayed about the same in 2009, following a five-year upward trend. However, patient satisfaction varied by arrival time. According to the study, patients who arrive between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. evaluate their care much more favorably than those who arrive after 3 p.m. Patients who arrive in the emergency department on Monday and Tuesday rank lowest in terms of patient satisfaction, while Saturday and Sunday evaluations of care are the highest.
Read the Press Ganey release on ED wait times.
View the full list of state-by-state average wait times.
