For the statewide ranking, CMS uses a separate measure that removes patients transferred to another facility and patients receiving psychiatric or mental-health care. On that measure, UPMC Somerset reported a median stay of three hours and 40 minutes, UPMC Altoona reported three hours and 30 minutes, and Mount Nittany and Penn Highlands Elk each reported three hours and eight minutes. Conemaugh Memorial reported two hours and 56 minutes.<\/p>\n
Behavioral-health patients often spent much longer in the ER at hospitals that reported enough cases for CMS to publish a number. Mount Nittany reported a median behavioral-health stay of eight hours and 18 minutes. Penn Highlands Elk reported seven hours, Penn Highlands DuBois reported six hours and 18 minutes, and Conemaugh Memorial reported three hours and 57 minutes. Several hospitals did not have a published number because of small patient counts.<\/p>\n
![\"Pennsylvania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ad5f2eec-6adc-4538-9efc-e6122724a1e7-Localhospitalwaittimes.png\")
<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania ER wait times (local chart)<\/p>\n
Patients being transferred to another facility also often had long stays. UPMC Bedford reported a median of more than 10 hours for transferred patients. Penn Highlands Elk, Windber Medical Center and UPMC Altoona each reported transfer stays of more than eight hours.<\/p>\n
Most hospitals reported that 1% or fewer patients left before being seen in 2024. The exceptions were Windber Medical Center at 6%, Conemaugh Nason Medical Center at 4% and Penn Highlands Elk at 3%.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Jordan, vice president of the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania, said emergency departments are facing pressures that could worsen.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne, we need to recognize that these challenges that are straining our emergency departments are only going to get worse in the upcoming year,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n
Jordan said hospital closures, workforce shortages and funding concerns could increase pressure on the emergency departments that remain open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking at closures. We expect to see 12 to 14 more Pennsylvania hospitals close by 2030. These issues are going to be more intense for our emergency departments that remain open,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jordan said the state and federal government need to invest in behavioral-health crisis services, sustainable hospital funding and the health-care workforce.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Health Access Network also warned that long ER waits are especially concerning in rural communities, where patients may have fewer options for primary care, hospitals, clinics and nursing homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cLong emergency room wait times are a serious problem that we consistently hear about from Pennsylvanians — particularly in rural communities. When patients face hours-long waits, it can discourage them from seeking care and delay treatment when they need it most,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combination of more people without affordable access to primary care and fewer hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes to serve them is a recipe for even more pressure on Pennsylvania\u2019s emergency rooms,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
At Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, Dr. Matthew Perry, chairman of the emergency department, pointed to staffing and capacity issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, that all hospitals across the nation and Pennsylvania are fighting are staffing shortages, especially worse since COVID. I think we\u2019ve rebounded some, but we have a long ways to go. That comes with staff and recruitment. With that, that comes funding,\u201d Perry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more facilities, we need more manpower, we need more inpatient beds. Those too, when the end is much larger than the capabilities that we have, leads to greater wait times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
EMR provided some information for this story: https:\/\/www.findemr.com\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PENNSYLVANIA (WJAC) \u2014 Pennsylvania emergency rooms are keeping patients longer than most of the country, with new federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-278504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}