From 1% To 6% Of Emergency Department Visits Ended When The Consumer Left Without Being Seen
Nationwide, from 1% to 6% of people who visited an emergency department during 2023 left without being seen, according to data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in August 2025. CMS tracks this percentage as a hospital quality-of-care measure.
The most common rate of people who left hospital emergency departments without being seen in the CMS data, 2%, was reported for 20 states: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
The highest rate, 6%, was in the District . . .