In 2023, the median emergency department (ED) visit time among U.S. hospitals was 163 minutes, an increase of just 1 minute over the previous year, according to new data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as reported by Becker’s. The latest dataset covers ED visits recorded from October 2022 through September 2023. Delta Health System’s Medical Center in Greenville, Mississippi, tops the list of hospitals or health systems with the longest median ED visit times at 518 minutes, based on 31,000 annual visits. Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, ranks second at 433 minutes, based on 70,000 annual visits. Both of the organizations operate level 1 trauma centers.
For good measure: Becker’s also compiled a list of shortest ED visit times from the same CMS data. At the top of the list is Rio Grande Hospital in Del Norte, Colorado, at 38 minutes (based on a relatively small sample size of 132 patients) and Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Cut Off, Louisiana, at 43 minutes (sample size of 284 patients).
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