The average emergency room patient in America waits nearly an hour on average to see a doctor, according to new federal statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that's up from 38 minutes a decade ago. CDC experts attribute the longer waiting time to the fact that more people are arriving at Emergency Rooms, but there are fewer Emergency Rooms to receive them. In 2006, ER's saw 119 million visits, up from 90 million in 1996. Since then, however, the nation has lost 300 emergency rooms.
