Longer ER Waits

Emergency room waiting times are getting longer.

Because of rising patient volume, the average amount of time a patient waited to see a physician in the ER increased from 38 minutes in 1997 to 1 hour and 42 minutes in 2020 (the most recent statistics available).

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 1.1 billion visits were made to emergency departments, doctors' offices and hospital outpatient centers in 2020.