Emergency room wait times vary significantly across the United States depending on factors such as hospital resources, patient volume, and staffing levels, with some states facing delays that can stretch for more than three hours.

Long stays in the emergency department often point to issues like understaffing or overcrowding, leading to delays in treatment, and often times, worse patient health outcomes.

This map, via Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu, visualizes the average time patients spend in the emergency department before leaving, by U.S. state and territory.

Data comes from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and is updated as of Oct. 30, 2024.

This data reflects the average time patients spend at the emergency department, from the time they arrive to the time they leave, and excludes those who died in the emergency department, left without the approval of a licensed provider, or lacked documented discharge destinations.

Below, we show the average time patients spent in the emergency room before leaving, by state.

RankState/TerritoryAverage time patients spent in the emergency room before leaving1District of Columbia5 hrs 14 min2Puerto Rico4 hrs 41 min3Maryland4 hrs 10 min4Rhode Island3 hrs 38 min5Massachusetts3 hrs 36 min6Delaware3 hrs 31 min7New York3 hrs 24 min8North Carolina3 hrs 11 min9New Jersey3 hrs 11 min10Connecticut3 hrs 9 min11California3 hrs 6 min12Pennsylvania3 hrs 3 min13Vermont2 hrs 59 min14Illinois2 hrs 55 min15Maine2 hrs 55 min16Arizona2 hrs 50 min17Virginia2 hrs 46 min18Michigan2 hrs 45 min19New Hampshire2 hrs 45 min20South Carolina2 hrs 43 min21New Mexico2 hrs 42 min22Florida2 hrs 41 min23Georgia2 hrs 40 min24Tennessee2 hrs 38 min25Oregon2 hrs 37 min26Washington2 hrs 37 min27Ohio2 hrs 36 min28Kentucky2 hrs 35 min29Missouri2 hrs 35 min30Alabama2 hrs 26 min31Texas2 hrs 26 min32West Virginia2 hrs 25 min33Nevada2 hrs 24 min34Idaho2 hrs 22 min35Alaska2 hrs 20 min36Wisconsin2 hrs 18 min37Colorado2 hrs 15 min38Wyoming2 hrs 15 min39Arkansas2 hrs 13 min40Louisiana2 hrs 12 min41Utah2 hrs 12 min42Mississippi2 hrs 7 min43Montana2 hrs 7 min44Minnesota2 hrs 6 min45Indiana2 hrs 5 min46Kansas2 hrs 1 min47Oklahoma2 hrs48Iowa1 hr 59 min49Hawaii1 hr 57 min50Nebraska1 hr 54 min51South Dakota1 hr 53 min52North Dakota1 hr 50 min

The median emergency room visit time in 2024 in the U.S. was 2 hours and 42 minutes. Twenty states had average emergency room visit times higher than the national average.

Washington, D.C. residents had the longest average emergency department visit times at 5 hours and 14 minutes, followed by Puerto Rico at 4 hours and 41 minutes.

These extended wait times in D.C. and Puerto Rico are likely due to a combination of high population density, limited healthcare resources, and potentially higher rates of uninsured patients seeking emergency care.

Rural and less populated states like North Dakota (1 hour 50 minutes), South Dakota (1 hour 53 minutes), and Nebraska (1 hour 54 minutes) had the shortest emergency room times, suggesting that lower patient loads and less crowded facilities contribute to faster processing.

Long emergency department waits worsen patient health, raise healthcare costs, and strain hospital resources, increasing risks of mortality and compromised care.

A University of South Caroline study found that prolonging the wait of a patient who arrives with a serious condition by 10 minutes will increase the hospital’s cost to care for the patient by an average of 6%.

To learn more about the health care landscape in the U.S., check out this graphic that visualizes the largest health insurance company in each U.S. state.