But the time Utah patients wait to see a physician may be shorter.

Almost 668,000 visits were made to Utah's ERs in 2006, up 47 percent from a decade ago. At the same time, the population grew 28 percent.

By comparison, the number of ER visits nationally has jumped 32 percent from 1996 to 119 million in 2006, according to new federal statistics released Wednesday.

Erik Barton, chief of emergency medicine at University of Utah Hospital, one of the state's busiest, attributes the jump in his ER to a growing population, an aging population, more complications due to more aggressive medical treatments and an increase in uninsured and underinsured Utahns.

"All these patients come to the emergency department as a first [stop] for unscheduled care," said Barton, who noted the U. may add up to eight new ER beds to its existing 27.

Today, "we often have [patients] in hallways and gurneys when we get full."

Mark Bair, an emergency doctor in Payson and president of the Utah Medical Association, says another factor is low Medicaid reimbursement rates. Primary care doctors are dropping those patients, who end up in the ER.

He said ERs are becoming more hectic.

"The waiting room is full, the line's out the door and all the beds are full and the ambulances are calling to come in. It's chaotic."

Nationally, patients are waiting an average of 56 minutes to see a physician, up from 38 minutes in 1997. However, half the patients had wait times of 31 minutes or less.

In Utah, there are no similar statewide figures available. Bair estimates the average wait is a 30 to 45 minutes, with times ranging from 15 minutes to four hours for less critical patients. He said Utah's healthy population makes patients easier to treat.

Barton said the U. slashed its wait times from an hour to an average of 13 minutes in the past seven months. Concerned that 1,200 visitors a year were leaving the ER before seeing a doctor because there weren't enough beds, the U. implemented a new triage system in January.

A doctor, instead of nurses, sees patients as they enter the ER. Patients who don't need to be in the ER can be sent away more quickly. For less critical patients, the doctor can start lab work while patients wait for a room.

It cost the U. almost $800,000 a year to hire three physicians for the program, Barton said, adding: "It's been a tremendous success."

The state's largest hospital system, Intermountain Healthcare, says the average wait at its 19 hospitals with ERs is 32 minutes, a figure that has been inching down over the past couple of years. Spokesman Jason Mathis attributed the drop to steering patients who don't need ER care to community and express clinics. Intermountain underwrites or runs 16 such clinics. In addition, a task force is looking at ways to get average wait times below a half hour.

Mountain Star, which runs six hospitals in Utah said the average wait at its largest, St. Mark's in Salt Lake County, is 48 minutes, down 17 minutes from last year. The goal is 45 minutes.

And Doug Boudreaux, spokesman for the state's four Iasis-owned hospitals, including Jordan Valley in West Jordan, have an average 30-minute wait.

"Everybody measures it differently," he cautioned.

At the same time, Utah has been ranked worst in the nation for the total amount of time patients spend in the ER. A national survey by Press Ganey Associates, which has contracts with hospitals to measure patient satisfaction, found Utah patients spent more than six hours in the ER in 2006. The national average was four hours.

Wednesday's federal report, based on a national survey of 362 hospital emergency departments, showed black patients visited emergency departments at twice the rate as whites in 2006. Among age groups, the highest visitation rates were for infants and elderly people aged 75 and older.

Utah data show children ages 1 to 4 and 20-somethings visit ERs disproportionately. Injuries and poisonings are the most common reason.

About 40 percent of ER patients had private insurance, about 25 percent were covered by state programs for children and about 17 percent were covered by Medicare, the report found. About 17 percent were uninsured.

And summer and winter were the busiest times in ERs. Half of hospital admissions in 2006 came through emergency departments, up from 36 percent in 1996.

hmay@sltrib.com - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.