Becker’s has compiled a list of hospitals and health systems with the longest emergency department visit times using data from CMS’ provider data catalog.
The CDC tracks the average time patients spend in the ED before leaving the visit as part of its “timely and effective care” measure set. The data was released Feb. 19 and covers ED visits recorded from April 2023 through March 2024. Measures in this dataset apply to all adults and children treated in hospitals paid under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System or the Outpatient Prospective Payment System. Learn more about the measures here.
Nationwide, the average ED visit time was 163 minutes in the 12-month period ending March 2024, CMS data shows.
Below are 10 hospitals or health systems with the longest ED visit times. Becker’s also compiled wait times for the same period a year prior to understand how figures have changed.
Note: CMS does not include hospitals’ total ED volumes or case mix index in the dataset. For additional context, Becker’s collected estimated annual ED volumes for all hospitals with the data publicly available online. Four of the 10 hospitals (bolded below) operate level 1 trauma centers.
| Median ED visit time(for 12-month period ending March 2024) | Sample size | Previous median ED visit time(for 12-month period ending March 2023) | Sample size | Estimated annual ED volumes | |
| Hillsboro (Ore.) Medical Center | 456 minutes | 380 patients | 217 minutes | 385 patients | 20,000 – 39,999 |
| Duke University Hospital (Durham, N.C.) | 427 | 357 | 412 | 324 | 70,000 |
| Doctors’ Center Bayamon (P.R.)* | 426 | 502 | 392 | 944 | – |
| Manati (P.R) Medical Center* | 418 | 1,403 | N/A | N/A | – |
| Loma Linda (Calif.) University Medical Center | 404 | 370 | 439 | 350 | 75,000+ |
| Doctors’ Center Hospital Carolina (P.R.)* | 398 | 328 | 319 | 744 | – |
| George Washington University Hospital (Washington, D.C.) | 396 | 374 | 435 | 383 | 75,000 |
| St. Peter’s Hospital (Albany, N.Y.) | 395 | 365 | 322 | 371 | 54,000 |
| Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center (Silver Spring, Md.) | 388 | 483 | 366 | 480 | 37,000 |
| Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (Torrance, Calif.) | 383 | 337 | 354 | 333 | 60,000+ |
*Data is based on a shorter time period than required, according to CMS.
