By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — New York State hospitals rank 46th in the nation for emergency room visit wait times, with patients waiting an average of five hours to receive treatment, the New York Post reported.
Emergency room wait times increased by 18 minutes between 2008 and 2009 to 296 minutes, Press Ganey, an organization that monitors hospitals, told the Post.
The longer wait times may be due to recent closures of health facilities, such as St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, around Manhattan, the paper reported.
As a result of closures, patients have crowded into other hospitals, increasing waiting times, the Post reported.
State health department officials said that the quality of care at hospitals trumped wait times.
"Our concern is that patients receive accurate diagnoses and quality care," a spokeswoman with the department said to the Post.
"Our system is not designed to be like the 12-items-or-less line at the supermarket," she said.
