WakeMed, UNC Rex ER waits top national average in study

If you need emergency care in Raleigh tonight, WakeMed Raleigh Campus and UNC Rex both sat well above the national average, with ER waits of 3 hours 29 minutes and 3 hours 28 minutes, respectively. The 2024 national average was 2 hours 42 minutes, a gap that matters when families are deciding where to go in a crisis.

The Central North Carolina numbers were even worse at the top of the list. Duke University Hospital in Durham had the longest average ER wait in North Carolina at 7 hours 34 minutes. Duke Regional Hospital ranked second at 6 hours, and UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill ranked fourth at 4 hours 46 minutes. The comparison gives Wake County residents a clear benchmark: Raleigh’s major hospitals were not the worst in the state, but they were still slower than the national average.

The figures come from a study that reviewed 102 hospitals in North Carolina using data from HospitalStats.org, and they show a system under strain across the Triangle. For WakeMed, the wait time lands in a larger picture of heavy volume. The Raleigh-based system says it is a 973-bed private, not-for-profit health care network with seven emergency departments and numerous urgent care sites. Its fiscal year 2024 statistics list 131,433 emergency visits across WakeMed Raleigh Campus, Cary Hospital, North Hospital and its healthplex emergency departments.

WakeMed Raleigh Campus also houses one of seven Level 1 Trauma Centers in North Carolina, which helps explain why the emergency department sees complex, high-acuity cases alongside everyday walk-ins. UNC Health also points patients toward emergency care for life-threatening or potentially disabling conditions, saying people should call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department when every minute counts.

That guidance reflects why the wait-time numbers are more than a scoreboard. CMS says emergency department care is part of its publicly reported timely and effective care measures, and that delays before treatment can reduce quality and increase risks and discomfort for patients with serious illnesses or injuries. For Wake County families, the takeaway is practical: if symptoms suggest a stroke, major trauma, trouble breathing or another life-threatening emergency, the priority is getting to the nearest ED fast, not chasing the shortest line on paper.

UNC Health also underscores the depth of its emergency network. UNC Children’s Emergency Department in Chapel Hill is a Level 1 pediatric trauma center with access to NICU, PICU and psychiatric emergency services, and UNC Carolina Air Care runs 24 hours a day with helicopters, an airplane and ambulances for critical transfers. In a fast-growing county where hospital systems serve as major regional hubs, the waits show how much demand the emergency room is carrying before the door even opens.