In 2009, Massachusetts banned ambulance diversion — the practice of sending ambulances to other hospitals due to crowding or resource shortages. Researchers developed a study to determine whether this ban led to increased ED crowding and ambulance turnaround time. They measured length of stay to estimate crowding.
The researchers studied nine Boston-area hospital EDs. After the ban, overall ED volume increased 3.6 percent, but ED length of stay for admitted patients decreased 10.4 minutes and turnaround time decreased 2.2 minutes. Neither high- nor low-diverting EDs experienced an increase in length of stay, and ambulance turnaround time decreased at both types of EDs.
The authors concluded that the ambulance diversion ban did not increase ED crowding or ambulance availability.
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