The average wait to see a doctor in Kings County Hospital rose from 103 minutes in 2012 to 113 minutes last year. The national average is 28 minutes, and 37 minutes for New York State.
The Daily News obtained last year's data through a FOIL request, and found that overall, wait times have been dropping, from 76 minutes in 2012 to 51 minutes last year, despite an increase in the number of patients. “It’s clear that Brooklyn needs more healthcare resources, not fewer,” an executive for the New York State Nurses Association said.
Kings County, which was sued last fall for allegedly wrongly informing patients of their HIV statuses, is located in Crown Heights, and serves some of the city's poorest residents. Beth Israel and New York-Presbyterian had ER waits of 75 and 87 minutes, respectively.
Pro Publica reported that emergency room patients at Kings County waited more than 9.5 hours for a room after being admitted. The national average is 97 minutes, while New York's average is 151 minutes.
Last month 30-year-old John Verrier died after waiting nearly eight hours to be treated for a rash at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, which is one of the worst it in the city when it comes to the average amount of time patients spend in the ER before being released—in this category St. Barnabas' 306 minutes is worse than Kings County's 246.
