Typical ER Wait Time in Kentucky
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A typical emergency room visit in Kentucky takes 2 hours 30 minutes from arrival to going home. That is 12 min shorter than the U.S. median of 2 hr 42 min. Half of visits are shorter and half are longer. The figure covers Oct 2024 to Sep 2025, the latest published.
This is the length of the whole visit for patients who were treated and sent home: waiting, tests, treatment and discharge together. It is not the wait until a doctor sees you, which is not published by state.
Median ER visit
2 hr 30 min
150 minutes, Oct 2024 to Sep 2025
Against the U.S.
12 min shorter
−7.4%U.S. 2 hr 42 min
Rank among states
24th shortest
of 51, counting the District of Columbia
How Kentucky compares with other states
Each tick is the median emergency room visit in one state. The highlighted band holds the middle half of states.
How long different kinds of visit take
The headline figure counts patients who went home. Visits that end another way run longer.
All patients
2 hr 35 min
−7.7%U.S. 2 hr 48 min
Every visit, including mental health patients and patients transferred elsewhere.
Mental health visits
3 hr 30 min
−18.3%U.S. 4 hr 17 min
Patients seen for psychiatric or mental health care.
Before a transfer
4 hr 37 min
−3.5%U.S. 4 hr 47 min
Time in the emergency department before being moved to another facility.
By how busy the hospital is
CMS groups hospitals by how many emergency patients they see in a year. A group with no hospitals in Kentucky has no figure.
| Hospital group | Kentucky | U.S. |
|---|---|---|
| Low volume | 2 hr 6 min | 2 hr 3 min |
| Medium volume | 2 hr 36 min | 2 hr 45 min |
| High volume | 3 hr 13 min | 3 hr 22 min |
| Very high volume | 2 hr 57 min | 3 hr 21 min |
Patients who left before being seen
Kentucky
2%
of emergency patients, Jan 2024 to Dec 2024
United States
2%
of emergency patients, Jan 2024 to Dec 2024
CMS publishes this share as a whole number, so small differences between states do not show.
What this figure is
Hospitals report to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services how long patients spend in their emergency departments. The figure here is CMS measure OP-18b: the median time from arrival to departure for patients who were sent home. Patients who were admitted, transferred to another facility, or seen for psychiatric or mental health care are left out of it.
It is a statewide figure over twelve months. A single hospital, a busy evening or a serious case can be far from it, and it says nothing about any one emergency room tonight. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Common questions
How long is the ER wait in Kentucky?
- Patients who are treated and sent home spend a median of 2 hours 30 minutes in emergency departments in Kentucky, from arrival to leaving (Oct 2024 to Sep 2025). That is the whole visit, not the wait to see a doctor, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services does not publish by state.
What is the average ER wait time in Kentucky compared with the U.S.?
- The median visit in Kentucky is 150 minutes and the U.S. median is 162 minutes, so visits in Kentucky are 12 min shorter. CMS publishes a median, the midpoint, rather than an average.
Does Kentucky have long emergency room waits?
- Kentucky has the 24th shortest emergency department visits of the 51 places ranked: the states and the District of Columbia. Its median visit is 2 hr 30 min; the U.S. median is 2 hr 42 min.
How many patients leave the ER without being seen in Kentucky?
- About 2% of patients left emergency departments in Kentucky before being seen (Jan 2024 to Dec 2024). The U.S. figure is 2%.
Are ER waits longer at busy hospitals in Kentucky?
- At very high volume emergency departments in Kentucky the median visit is 2 hr 57 min, against 2 hr 30 min across all of the state's hospitals.
Source
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Timely and Effective Care, emergency department measures
State and national results for Oct 2024 to Sep 2025. Retrieved on October 6, 2026.
The CMS data fileSource: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Timely and Effective Care
ER wait times in other states
Median visit. The percentage compares each state with the U.S.
- Alabama−8.0%2 hr 29 min
- Alaska−16.0%2 hr 16 min
- Arizona+8.6%2 hr 56 min
- Arkansas−7.4%2 hr 30 min
- California+7.4%2 hr 54 min
- Colorado−17.3%2 hr 14 min
- Connecticut+18.5%3 hr 12 min
- Delaware+34.0%3 hr 37 min
- District of Columbia+87.0%5 hr 3 min
- Florida−3.7%2 hr 36 min
- Georgia0.0%2 hr 42 min
- Hawaii−29.6%1 hr 54 min
- Idaho−12.3%2 hr 22 min
- Illinois0.0%2 hr 42 min
- Indiana−10.5%2 hr 25 min
- Iowa−24.1%2 hr 3 min
- Kansas−22.8%2 hr 5 min
- Louisiana−20.4%2 hr 9 min
- Maine−1.2%2 hr 40 min
- Maryland+51.9%4 hr 6 min
- Massachusetts+32.1%3 hr 34 min
- Michigan−1.9%2 hr 39 min
- Minnesota−19.1%2 hr 11 min
- Mississippi−20.4%2 hr 9 min
- Missouri−4.3%2 hr 35 min
- Montana−24.1%2 hr 3 min
- Nebraska−30.2%1 hr 53 min
- Nevada−10.5%2 hr 25 min
- New Hampshire−22.8%2 hr 5 min
- New Jersey+14.8%3 hr 6 min
- New Mexico+0.6%2 hr 43 min
- New York+19.8%3 hr 14 min
- North Carolina+15.4%3 hr 7 min
- North Dakota−32.1%1 hr 50 min
- Ohio−2.5%2 hr 38 min
- Oklahoma−27.8%1 hr 57 min
- Oregon−3.7%2 hr 36 min
- Pennsylvania+14.8%3 hr 6 min
- Rhode Island+37.7%3 hr 43 min
- South Carolina−2.5%2 hr 38 min
- South Dakota−29.0%1 hr 55 min
- Tennessee0.0%2 hr 42 min
- Texas−10.5%2 hr 25 min
- Utah−17.9%2 hr 13 min
- Vermont+9.9%2 hr 58 min
- Virginia−0.6%2 hr 41 min
- Washington−6.8%2 hr 31 min
- West Virginia−15.4%2 hr 17 min
- Wisconsin−15.4%2 hr 17 min
- Wyoming−19.1%2 hr 11 min