Maryland hospital emergency room wait times worst in country: report

Emergency room wait times at Maryland hospitals are still the longest in the country, according to a new report, despite some improvement from previous years.

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Emergency room wait times at Maryland hospitals are still the longest in the country, according to a new report, despite some improvement from previous years.

According to data from the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, the average patient can wait up to eight hours before they're finally seen in Maryland. That’s down from a previous average of 11 hours.

FOX 5’s Melanie Alnwick says hospital delays are often caused by not having enough staff to take care of patients, and not having enough beds for patients.

Maryland's capacity is among the lowest in the nation at 1.86 beds per 1,000 people, Alnwick says. Last summer some patients were reporting waiting as long as 16 hours to get help.

Alnwick says another factor contributing to the long wait times is not having space in skilled nursing or psychiatric facilities for in-patients who need to be discharged to a lower level of care - and that causes a ripple effect. In some cases, ambulances have to wait with their patients - and that dominoes as well.

There is also a concern that patients may decide to give up and leave before receiving care.