CLEVELAND, Ohio — Patients in Washington, D.C. waited a median of five hours in hospital emergency departments in 2024 —the longest wait in the country — while Ohioans waited less than three hours, according to a recently released federal report.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid tracked the average median time patients spent in the emergency department before leaving, and ranked states based on wait times.
Nationwide, the median time patients spent in the hospital emergency department was 161 minutes, or about 2.5 hours in 2024, down from 163 minutes in 2023, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid data…