Ambulance diversion and ED destination by race/ethnicity: evaluation of Massachusetts' ambulance diversion ban.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The impact of ambulance diversion on potentially diverted patients, particularly racial/ethnic minority patients, is largely unknown. Treating Massachusetts' 2009 ambulance diversion ban as a natural experiment, we examined if the ban was associated with increased concordance in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) patients of different race/ethnicity being transported to the same emergency department (ED).

Methods

We obtained Medicare Fee for Service claims records (2007-2012) for enrollees aged 66 and older. We stratified the country into patient zip codes and identified zip codes with sizable (non-Hispanic) White, (non-Hispanic) Black and Hispanic enrollees. For a stratified random sample of enrollees from all diverse zip codes in Massachusetts and 18 selected comp

SUBMITTER: Hanchate AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9347077 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature