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Massachusetts orders hospitals to stop ER diversions

Quality Improvement Monitor, September 19, 2008

Massachusetts hospitals will have to stop diverting ambulances from their emergency rooms (ER) beginning January 1, 2009, according to the Boston Globe.

The state Department of Public Health this week announced the new policy, which will prohibit ERs from diverting ambulances unless there is an internal emergency such as a major fire.

"Diversion potentially creates more problems than anyone thinks it solves," Paul Dreyer, the health department’s director of healthcare quality and safety, told the Globe. Those problems include shifting patient crowding to other organizations, increasing the time patients spend in ambulances, and tying up emergency vehicles.

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