NU Study:  Women Wait Longer for Hospital Emergency Room Care than Men

This is pretty scary.

Northwestern University researchers have found that, on average, women patients coming into the emergency room wait 12 minutes longer to be evaluated and treated than men do.  That’s on average – so some are equal, some are only a little better, some delays are way worse.

Men wait an average of two hours, 52 minutes, while women wait an average of three hours, four minutes.

Women also have to wait about three minutes longer than men to be “triaged,” or evaluated and prioritized for care in the ER.

On average, they wait 52 minutes to be triaged, while men wait an average of 49 minutes.

Researchers write, “These findings suggest potential gaps of care that may be excellent targets for quality improvement of existing processes of assessment and triage and discharge planning.”