Wait Times At Hospitals Longer These Days Study Indicates

Along with the rising cost of health care these days another thing that is rising with it is the amount of time you will have to wait to be seen if you are ill. According to a recent study it is up over 150% since just 1997. it has gone up from about 8 minutes that year to amost 20 minutes by 2004. Researchers say that one of the big causes for this is the declining number of emergency rooms in the nation as more and more hospitals close down coupled with an overall increase in the population in general which results in more crowded emergency rooms and longer wait times. The study also indicated that african americans in urban environments on average have longer wait times than whites do in a suburban setting.