Ambulance Diversions: What They Are, Why We Care and What To Do

The New America Foundation
September 1, 2008

There is no standard criterion for when a hospital can divert ambulances from its ED. Each hospital, county, or state has it’s own set of measures for determining when a hospital may go on diversion, including: the number of staff on duty, bed capacity, and the number of walk-ins in the ED waiting room...

• EDs have become a major source of primary care:

Recent research by the New England Healthcare Institute found that roughly one-quarter of all emergency-room visits were non-urgent, and another quarter could have been addressed (or prevented) by a visit to a doctor’s office. In addition, the uninsured are twice as likely to visit an ED for a chronic condition that could be treated by a primary care physician. This misuse of EDs makes it more likely that a hospital will have to divert ambulances...

Link to Full Article: http://www.newamerica.net/files/Ambulance%20Diversions.pdf