An ambulance is diverted about once every minute in the U.S. as a result of emergency room overcrowding, a new study finds. The research, which appeared in this week's issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, is one of the first studies to attempt to assess how common diversions are nationwide. Researchers looked at data from 405 hospital emergency departments nationwide. Catharine Burt of the National Center for Health Statistics is the study's lead author.
- see this report from the Philadelphia Inquirer