Objective:To explore the application of effect of healthcare failure mode and effect analysis (HFMEA) in emergency waiting risk management.Methods:From May 2020 to April 2021, totally 87 902 emergency waiting patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University were assigned to control group by cluster sampling method. From May 2021 to April 2022, 80 594 emergency waiting patients were assigned to observed group. The patients in the control group received routine emergency waiting of itinerant management mode. In contrast, the patients in the observed group received emergency waiting risk management mode based on HFMEA. The process risk priority number (RPN) and waiting risk management index between two groups were compared.Results:The mean RPN of the observed group was (98.48 ± 8.27) points, significantly lower than that of the control group (251.27 ± 16.95) points. The nurses′ pre-identification rates of changes in the condition and adverse reaction in the observed group were 10.77%(8680/80 594) and 13.37%(10 775/80 594), which were higher than those in the control group, 5.77%(5072/87 902) and 8.12%(7134/87 902), the differences were statistically significant ( χ2 values were 1402.32 and 1221.66, all P<0.05). Conclusions:The application of HFMEA to optimize the emergency waiting management process can effectively reduce the risk of emergency waiting and improve the quality of emergency waiting management.