Emergency Room Times At NJ Hospitals Revealed: Search The Full List

NEW JERSEY— Patients at some New Jersey hospitals spend hours waiting in emergency departments, according to Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services data.

University Hospital in Newark reported the state's longest median emergency room time, at 307 minutes, or more than five hours.

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As New Jersey's only public hospital, its emergency department often serves people without insurance, recognized immigration status, stable housing or the resources to pay for ongoing care, a hospital spokesperson told NJ.com.

At hospitals serving larger populations than others, improving services and wait times often means pouring more resources into expansion.

So, Atlantic Health, which owns Morristown Medical Center, the runner-up in longest wait times, will spend $1 billion into an expansion project.

"While we have seen measurable results, the clearest remedy remains a critical expansion project that will best position Atlantic Health Morristown to provide essential healthcare services for years to come," the spokesperson told NJ.com.

Last month, more than 50 New Jersey hospitals faced Medicare payment cuts under a federal program designed to reduce preventable hospital readmissions.

The program targets non-patient stays when they record higher-than-expected readmission rates for certain conditions and procedures.

But the hospitals facing the steepest Medicare penalties for readmissions don't necessarily have the longest emergency room waits.

A comparison of federal hospital data found virtually no relationship between the size of a hospital's Medicare readmission penalty and the median time patients spend in its emergency department.

Of the 53 New Jersey hospitals matched across the two datasets, 27 reported emergency room stays below the state median of 185 minutes, while 26 exceeded it.

Here's a searchable table of New Jersey hospitals and their median emergency room wait times, based on federal data from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025.

Search NJ Hospital Wait Times