WORCESTER, Mass. - A new report by the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission shows long emergency room wait times are worsening in the state. 

The report looked at boarding for behavioral health visits, which happens when patients remain in the emergency department awaiting further treatment.

It found nearly 39% of behavioral health-related visits lasted more than 12 hours before discharge or admission to a higher level of care between January and May 2024.

This is up from 31.3 percent in all of 20-20. 

The report was part of a legislative mandate to help make policy recommendations on how to fix the issues emergency rooms are seeing.

"We know that behavioral health emergency department boarding is a symptom, of patients who may not have been able to get access to care early enough or are not able to get access to inpatient placement if they are, if they need inpatient levels of care” said Dr. Laura Nasuti, the director of research and analytics at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. “And behavioral health emergency department boarding is harmful to the patients and their families, but it's also impacting the hospital staff, non-behavioral health patients that are in the emergency department."

The report also found the percent of patients who boarded has grown for non-behavioral health visits as well, from 4.5% in 2020 to 8.1% from January to May 2024.