Athens has lower ER wait times

If you head to an Emergency Room in Athens, you can expect to wait for a doctor less than most Americans. That’s according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. he Athens Banner-Herald reports the average patient wait time at Athens Regional Medical Center is 42 minutes. At St. Mary’s Hospital, it’s 47 minutes. The CDC says in the average American ER, people wait an hour.

Longer emergency room waits these days

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.