ER Wait Times in Los Angeles, CA: 9 Hospitals Compared
9 hospitals in Los Angeles, CA report how long their emergency room patients stay. The middle value here is 228 minutes; California: 173.5 minutes; national (Medicare): 162 minutes.
What this time means
Each hospital’s number is Medicare measure OP-18b: the median (middle) time from arriving at the emergency room to leaving it, for patients who were treated and went home. Half of these patients left sooner, half later. It is not the time before seeing a doctor, and it leaves out patients who were admitted to the hospital, transferred, or seen for mental health.
Medicare’s name for the measure: “Average (median) time patients spent in the emergency department before leaving from the visit, excluding patients transferred to another facility or psychiatric care/mental health patients. A lower number of minutes is better”. Patients seen January 2025 to December 2025.
Emergency rooms in Los Angeles, CA, shortest time first
Ranked by Medicare's median time (OP-18b), shortest first; hospitals with the same time share a rank. Left without being seen: share of ER patients who left before a doctor or nurse saw them (January 2024 to December 2024; national 2%). ER volume: patients per year, as Medicare groups it.
| # | Hospital | Median time in the ER | Left without being seen | ER volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles Community Hospital | 147 min (2 h 27 min) | 0% | Low (under 20,000) |
| 2 | Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital | 149 min (2 h 29 min) | 1% | Very high (60,000 or more) |
| 3 | East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital | 164 min (2 h 44 min) | 6% | Low (under 20,000) |
| 4 | Adventist Health White Memorial | 195 min (3 h 15 min) | 2% | Very high (60,000 or more) |
| 5 | Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center | 228 min (3 h 48 min) | 4% | High (40,000–59,999) |
| 6 | California Hospital Medical Center LA | 247 min (4 h 7 min) | 2% | Very high (60,000 or more) |
| 7 | Los Angeles General Medical Center | 291 min (4 h 51 min) | 2% | Very high (60,000 or more) |
| 8 | Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center | 318 min (5 h 18 min) | 5% | High (40,000–59,999) |
| 9 | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | 365 min (6 h 5 min) | 9% | Very high (60,000 or more) |
Other cities in California
- Anaheim158 min
- Bakersfield244.5 min
- Fountain Valley164 min
- Fresno228 min
- Glendale192 min
- Loma Linda312.5 min
- Long Beach278 min
- Modesto227 min
- Monterey Park112.5 min
- Murrieta213.5 min
- Oakland211 min
- Orange217 min
- Redding174 min
- Riverside183 min
- Sacramento185 min
- Salinas182.5 min
- San Bernardino166 min
- San Diego190.5 min
- San Francisco180 min
- San Jose142 min
- San Luis Obispo156 min
- Santa Ana180 min
- Santa Barbara166.5 min
- Santa Monica205 min
- Santa Rosa179.5 min
- Stockton200.5 min
- Torrance275 min
- Ventura182.5 min
- Victorville192.5 min
- Whittier167 min
Common questions
Which ER in Los Angeles, CA has the shortest wait?
In Medicare's data for January 2025 to December 2025, Los Angeles Community Hospital had the shortest median time patients spent in the emergency room before going home: 147 minutes. This is the total time of the visit, not the time before seeing a doctor, and it is an average of past patients, not a promise for your visit.
What is the average ER wait time in Los Angeles, CA?
The middle value of the 9 hospitals listed here is 228 minutes; for all of California it is 173.5 minutes. The national figure published by Medicare is 162 minutes. Each hospital's number is the median time from arriving at the emergency room to leaving it, for patients who were treated and went home.
Should I drive to a farther ER to wait less?
No. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. These times are past averages; emergency rooms see the sickest patients first, and minutes lost on the road can matter more than minutes in a waiting room.
Does a shorter time mean a better emergency room?
Not by itself. Busier emergency rooms and hospitals that treat more serious cases usually have longer times, so the ER volume is shown next to each time. The time is one measure among many on each hospital’s page.
Sources and dates
- Timely and Effective Care - Hospital — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), data updated October 19, 2026, retrieved November 13, 2026. Times: patients seen January 2025 to December 2025; left without being seen: January 2024 to December 2024.
- Timely and Effective Care - National — CMS, data updated October 19, 2026 (the national figures).
Only open hospitals that list an emergency room and report this time are included. The state and city figures are the median of the hospitals listed, calculated by us from the same CMS hospital file. Wording last revised November 11, 2026. Not medical advice.