diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f8630fc..10cc9ed 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+## v0.16.3 (2024-11-25)
+
+### Fix
+
+- decrease total response timeout to 5s for mss status check
+
 ## v0.16.2 (2024-07-22)
 
 ### Fix
diff --git a/iiif/profiles/mss.py b/iiif/profiles/mss.py
index fce6edd..4b377e2 100644
--- a/iiif/profiles/mss.py
+++ b/iiif/profiles/mss.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import shutil
 import tempfile
 import time
-from aiohttp import ClientResponse, ClientError
+from aiohttp import ClientResponse, ClientError, ClientTimeout
 from cachetools import TTLCache
 from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
 from dataclasses import dataclass
@@ -438,7 +438,8 @@ async def get_status(self) -> dict:
         try:
             health_url = f'{next(self.es_hosts)}/_cluster/health'
             start_time = time.monotonic()
-            async with self.es_session.get(health_url) as response:
+            async with self.es_session.get(health_url,
+                                           timeout=ClientTimeout(total=5)) as response:
                 return {
                     'status': (await response.json())['status'],
                     'response_time': time.monotonic() - start_time
@@ -639,7 +640,8 @@ async def get_status(self) -> dict:
         status['error_breakdown'] = self.stream_errors
         try:
             start_time = time.monotonic()
-            async with self.mss_session.get('/nhmlive/status') as response:
+            async with self.mss_session.get('/nhmlive/status',
+                                            timeout=ClientTimeout(total=5)) as response:
                 status['mss_status'] = {
                     **(await response.json()),
                     'response_time': time.monotonic() - start_time,
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 9363a14..55bd898 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 [tool]
 [tool.commitizen]
 name = "cz_nhm"
-version = "0.16.2"
+version = "0.16.3"
 tag_format = "v$version"
 update_changelog_on_bump = true
 changelog_incremental = true
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c0ac281..0104cc3 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [metadata]
 name = iiif-image-server
-version = 0.16.2
+version = 0.16.3
 description = A IIIF enabled media server primarily used by the NHM Data Portal
 long_description = file: README.md
 license_files = LICENSE