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Average emergency department wait times reach 2.5 hours

Long emergency department wait times imperil patient access to care, leaving an average of 2.27% of patients giving up on the ED before they can even be seen.

Sara Heath
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Published: 25 Aug 2026

The average emergency department wait time in the U.S. is nearly three hours, with residents facing wait times of more than five hours in some states or territories, according to new data from the CMS.

Those long wait times come with consequences, leaving a nationwide average of 2.27% of patients leaving the ED before even being seen, the data showed.

These findings come as the U.S. aims to lower ED wait times. According to Healthy People 2030, around a fifth of ED visits had wait times longer than recommended for the patient's triage level in 2022. The initiative, managed by HHS and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, aims to reduce that figure to 12% by the end of the decade.

But according to this latest data release from the CMS, which looked at ED wait times in 2024, the nation is a way off from that goal.

Currently, only four states have ED wait times less than two hours, and that's by a slim margin. In Hawaii, wait times are 114 minutes, or one hour and 54 minutes. In North Dakota, ED wait times are 115 minutes, while in South Dakota and Nebraska, patients face wait times of 119 minutes, which is one hour and 59 minutes.

Most (34) states have ED wait times somewhere between two and three hours, while another 11 states have ED wait times between three and four hours.

It was much rarer for states to have wait times over four hours. Maryland's ED wait time comes in at four hours and 11 minutes, while Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico both have wait times over five hours.

Unsurprisingly, the longer the wait time, the more likely patients were to leave the ED without being treated.

For states with ED wait times under 200 minutes (or around 3.3 hours), the walkout rate was between 1% and 3%. Once that wait time exceeded 220 minutes, walkout rates jumped to between 4% and 6%.

Could more ED overcrowding be on the horizon?

The CMS data did not dig into the drivers behind climbing ED wait times, but these figures are clear signs of ED overcrowding.

People might be flocking to the ED because other forms of lower-acuity care -- the primary care office or even an urgent care clinic -- are becoming less accessible. On the other hand, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act dictates that EDs cannot turn patients away.

In other words, the ED might be the most effective place for patients to get care when they have nowhere else to go. These patients might face logistical barriers getting to their provider offices, lack a usual source of care, face high healthcare costs or lack insurance coverage.

There's a chance this wait time problem gets worse. Starting in 2027, Medicaid recipients will be beholden to new eligibility requirements, including more frequent eligibility checks and work requirements. Experts estimate that various Medicaid eligibility requirements will result in nearly 10 million people losing their coverage.

Without coverage for primary care or treatment in low-acuity settings, it is likely these individuals will access more care in the ED.

Sara Heath is an executive editor at Xtelligent Healthcare Media, where she covers patient engagement, healthcare policy and health IT.

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