CT Cracks Top 10 Worst Emergency Room Wait Times

A recent report from HealthGrove revealed Connecticut has cracked the top 10 list of states with the worst Emergency Room response times.

HealthGrove used data taken from a Medicare survey of more than 4,000 hospitals to rate a timeliness score to each state. Many factors contributed to said score, which is out of 100, including:

• Patient's total arrival to departure time at the hospital
• Average time patient spends in the emergency department before they are seen by a healthcare professional
• Average time patient spends in the emergency department, after the doctor decides to admit them as an inpatient, before leaving the emergency department for their inpatient room
• Average time patient spends in the emergency department, before they are admitted to the hospital as an inpatient
• Average time patients who come to the emergency department with broken bones wait before receiving pain medication
• Percentage of patients who leave the ER without being seen
• Percentage of patients with stroke symptoms who receive brain scan results within 45 minutes of arrival

Connecticut scored a 48.06, ranking it number 10 out of the worst 10. It also cites the hospital with the slowest response time in the state as Waterbury Hospital.

An average Emergency Department (ED) arrival to admit decision averages 355 minutes, according to results. An average admit decision to inpatient transfer can average 156 minutes.

The overall average time patients in Connecticut spent waiting in the emergency department before they were seen by a healthcare professional was 26 minutes.

Read the full report to see where other states ranked.