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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2006;295:1504-1505.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A diversion can draw attention away from something important. But for the emergency medical care system, diversion helps focus attention on the growing capacity crisis.

Hospital emergency departments overstressed by incoming patients often need to divert ambulances transporting other patients to different facilities. Observers in the emergency medicine community view this as a byproduct of the many-faceted problems facing health care delivery in general. But until now, the literature on the severity of diversion problems has been scant.

Ambulance diversion is a symptom of an overstressed emergency care system facing growing numbers of patients, a dwindling number of facilities, and tight budgets. (Photo credit: Dagmar Ehling/www.sciencesource.com)

But knowledge may be growing as two new studies were recently published by the Annals of Emergency Medicine providing baseline measurements of the scope of ambulance diversion and background on its causes and characteristics (Burt CW et al. Ann Emerg . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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