Personally, I’ve never had particularly long waits in the ER, but I only ever went to the ER when something was seriously wrong.

But it can really depend on where you are, time of year, holiday weekend, etc etc. Hospitals do triage, So chest pains and broken legs tend to be seen before someone there with a runny nose, and the runny nose person will probably have a significantly longer wait time than someone coming in with the left side of their body sagging and uncontrollable. .