10 states with the longest ER wait times

In the U.S., expensive healthcare doesn't correlate with high-quality service — and wait times for the emergency room are a prime example of that. 

The average wait time for the ER in the U.S. is approximately two hours and 25 minutes, but some states see wait times as long as four hours, according to Florida-based personal injury attorneys from The Schiller Kessler Group. During a life-threatening emergency, it's hard to imagine waiting that long to be admitted to the ER, but it's a reality many Americans face, explains Stacey Judson, an ER nurse at Rochester General Hospital. 

"Patients are not always receiving the care they need and deserve," she says. "We have even had patients die while waiting for a spot in the [ER] for over an hour. This is heartbreaking and a nurse quit because they did not want patients to die needlessly on their watch."

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Judson underlines the lack of staff as the main reason why wait times have gotten out of control. This problem is increasingly exacerbated, as many nurses are on the verge of quitting because of poor working conditions, namely unreasonable patient-to-staff ratios. This can lead to negative outcomes for patients and moral injury for nurses, who feel like they've failed their patients, explains Judson. 

More staff, better retention efforts and improved administrative organization could lower these wait times, but it requires hospitals to rethink how they run their business. Until then, healthcare providers and patients have to contend with the fact that no one is guaranteed care, even if they can pay.

Here are 10 states with the longest ER wait times.