In Casper, people can travel home from work without sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

They can walk into most restaurants and not have to wait long for a table.

In big cities, people expect to wait in traffic or to be seated for dinner, but perceptions of waiting in Casper are different, according to Dr. Ron Iverson, director of the emergency room at the Wyoming Medical Center.

Wyomingites still complain about wasting time in emergency rooms, even though patients usually spend less time in Wyoming ERs than other ERs around the country.

In 2007, patients spent an average of 2 hours, 49 minutes from check-in until discharge or admission to the hospital in Wyoming ERs. The time ranks Wyoming second for lowest wait times. The U.S. average was 4 hours, 5 minutes, according to a survey by Press Ganey, a health care improvement organization.

Hospital officials said Wyoming Medical Center keeps patients an average of 3 hours, 3 minutes and Cheyenne Regional Medical Center about 3 hours, 10 minutes.

Only five Wyoming ERs of various sizes were included in the survey, but Press Ganey officials said it's enough to give people a snapshot of the state's ERs.

The national survey didn't examine wait times to see a doctor, but a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer said the national average was 56 minutes in 2006.

Patients who came to Cheyenne Regional's ER in August had to wait an average of 26 minutes to see a doctor, according to Tracy Garcia, assistant director of emergency services.

Iverson said WMC began keeping track of the wait time but doesn't have data available yet. He said the hospital tries to treat everyone within 30 minutes but admits sometimes people spend two hours in the waiting room.

"Compared to the national average, we are doing well, but we are higher than smaller ERs in the state," Iverson said. "I would like to see wait times shorter. I hate it when they have to wait."

Wyoming was one of only two states where a patients' time spent in ERs decreased from 2006, according to Matt Mulherin, director of corporate communications at Press Ganey.

He said low wait times in the state could be a result of fewer large cities and fewer large hospitals. Crowded ERs in urban areas tend to have longer wait times.

ERs across the country have implemented practices, such as diverting patients with minor injuries and streamlining admissions processes, to reduce wait times, Mulherin said.

Iverson said WMC has a fast-track unit where patients with minor injuries are seen by different staff members to free beds in the ER.

Cheyenne Regional has "a clinical decision unit" for people who might take longer to diagnose, Garcia said.

"There have been various projects at the hospital to decrease wait times in the past eight years, and I've been involved with several," Iverson said of WMC. "But volumes keep increasing."