ER wait-time methodology
ERcost.com separates wait-time information by source type so users can tell whether a value is current, historical, patient-reported, or unavailable.
Source types
- Hospital-published wait times, when a facility publishes a current value.
- Patient-reported wait times, after moderation and freshness checks.
- CMS historical emergency department measures, shown only as baseline context.
- Arrival reservation or online check-in availability, labeled separately.
- No public current source found, when no current value is available.
Definitions
A published wait time may mean time to triage, time to provider, door to room, total ED stay, or an undefined operational metric. ERcost.com displays the stated definition when it is available and marks unknown definitions clearly.
Freshness and confidence
Wait-time rows keep observed time, reported time, source label, and confidence visible next to the value. Historical CMS data is never labeled as a current ER wait time.
Confidence labels describe source quality, not medical certainty. Hospital-published values can still use different definitions, patient reports remain limited until moderated and aggregated.
CMS historical ED data
CMS emergency department measures are historical quality and throughput data. They are useful as baseline context, but they are not live ER wait times.
Patient reports
Patient reports should avoid diagnosis, account numbers, medical record numbers, dates of birth, or other private medical details. Reports are moderated before they influence public wait-time displays.
New submissions are stored as pending, screened for spam signals, and reviewed before they can become public current wait-time context.