Becker’s has compiled a list of hospitals and health systems with the shortest emergency department visit times using CMS’ Timely and Effective Care-Hospital data.
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 Aug. 13 and covers ED visits in the 12-month period ending September 2025. It applies to all adults and children treated at hospitals paid under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System or the Outpatient Prospective Payment System, and includes Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense hospitals. Learn more about the measures here.
Nationwide, the median time patients spent in the ED was 162 minutes for the 12-month period ending September 2025, stable from the same period a year prior, according to CMS data.
A note on interpreting these figures: Hospital-level rankings do not account for patient acuity or case complexity. Hospitals on this list are small community or critical access hospitals that may see lower annual ED volumes and patient acuities than facilities operating Level 1 or 2 trauma centers. To effectively assess ED performance, experts recommend benchmarking against a cohort of similar facilities. For a deeper look at how leaders can build a more accurate picture of ED performance, read more here.
Below are 10 hospitals with the longest ED visit times. For comparison, Becker’s also compiled figures from the prior year’s dataset.
| Hospital | Median ED visit time (2025) | Sample size | Median ED visit time (2024) | Sample size |
| Mille Lacs Health System (Onamia, Minn.) | 42 | 554 | 48* | 234 |
| Coteau des Prairies Health Care System (Sisseton, S.D.) | 44 | 357 | 54 | 344 |
| Rio Grande Hospital (Del Norte, Colo.) | 45 | 176 | 47 | 174 |
| Family Health West Hospital (Fruita, Colo.) | 48* | 25 | 132* | 532 |
| Cuba (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital | 48* | 20 | 68 | 133 |
| Mitchell County Hospital District (Colorado City, Texas) | 48 | 383 | 51 | 398 |
| Pinckneyville (Ill.) Community Hospital | 49 | 197 | 85 | 187 |
| Kula (Hawaii) Hospital | 54 | 284 | 62 | 226 |
| Compass Memorial Healthcare (Marengo, Iowa) | 55 | 475 | 96* | 382 |
| Sheridan (Mich.) Community Hospital | 55 | 388 | 96 | 372 |
*Data is based on a shorter time period than required, according to CMS.
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