California's discharged ED patients: median 174 minutes; 11 states and DC were longer
Median minutes from arrival in the emergency department to leaving it, for patients sent home (CMS measure OP-18b), October 2024 to September 2025, by state. Lower is better. Nationally, 162 minutes
Show the numbers as a table
| State | Value |
|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 303 min |
| Maryland | 246 min |
| Rhode Island | 223 min |
| Delaware | 217 min |
| Massachusetts | 214 min |
| New York | 194 min |
| Connecticut | 192 min |
| North Carolina | 187 min |
| New Jersey | 186 min |
| Pennsylvania | 186 min |
| Vermont | 178 min |
| Arizona | 176 min |
| California | 174 min |
| New Mexico | 163 min |
| Georgia | 162 min |
| Illinois | 162 min |
| Tennessee | 162 min |
| Virginia | 161 min |
| Maine | 160 min |
| Michigan | 159 min |
| Ohio | 158 min |
| South Carolina | 158 min |
| Florida | 156 min |
| Oregon | 156 min |
| Missouri | 155 min |
| Washington | 151 min |
| Arkansas | 150 min |
| Kentucky | 150 min |
| Alabama | 149 min |
| Indiana | 145 min |
| Nevada | 145 min |
| Texas | 145 min |
| Idaho | 142 min |
| Wisconsin | 137 min |
| West Virginia | 137 min |
| Alaska | 136 min |
| Colorado | 134 min |
| Utah | 133 min |
| Minnesota | 131 min |
| Wyoming | 131 min |
| Louisiana | 129 min |
| Mississippi | 129 min |
| Kansas | 125 min |
| New Hampshire | 125 min |
| Iowa | 123 min |
| Montana | 123 min |
| Oklahoma | 117 min |
| South Dakota | 115 min |
| Hawaii | 114 min |
| Nebraska | 113 min |
| North Dakota | 110 min |
About the data
- Sources
- CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - State (July 2026 release) (opens in a new tab)Measure OP_18b and OP_18b by volume, each state
- CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - National (July 2026 release) (opens in a new tab)Measures OP_18a to OP_18d and OP_18b by volume
- Method
- CMS's state and national figures for OP-18b as CMS prints them; CMS's state and national figures include Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense hospitals. The measure excludes patients admitted to the hospital, patients transferred to another facility and psychiatric or mental health patients. The map shows the 50 states and DC; Puerto Rico and the other territories in CMS's file are left off.
- Published
Free to share and embed with credit to Kent Applied (CC BY 4.0). The source data keeps its own terms.
A fact from this chart
Sources for the figures above: CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - State (July 2026 release) (opens in a new tab); CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - National (July 2026 release) (opens in a new tab).
Related charts
- From research
California hospitals with longer ED times tended to have more patients leave unseen
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - Hospital (July 2026 release) - From research
Transfers out of California EDs took a median 398 minutes, 111 more than nationally
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - State (July 2026 release); CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - National (July 2026 release) - From research
California hospitals in a volume group: 74 to 413 minutes for patients sent home
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - Hospital (July 2026 release) - From research
By ED size, California's times are near the national ones, except at the smallest EDs
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - State (July 2026 release); CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - National (July 2026 release); CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - Hospital (July 2026 release)
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