Geographic Variation in Use of Ambulance Transport to the Emergency Department.

ABSTRACT:

Study objective

Evidence on variability in emergency medical services use is limited. We obtain national evidence on geographic variation in the use of ambulance transport to the emergency department (ED) among Medicare enrollees and assess the role of health status, socioeconomic status, and provider availability.

Methods

We used 2010 Medicare claims data for a random sample of 999,999 enrollees aged 66 years and older, and identified ambulance transport and ED use. The main outcome measures were number of ambulance transports to the ED per 100 person-years (ambulance transport rate) and proportion (percentage) of ED visits by ambulance transport by hospital referral regions.

Results

The national ambulance transport rate was 22.2 and the overall proportion of ED visi

SUBMITTER: Hanchate AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5614809 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature