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High diversion rates in KC emergency departments are troubling

Emergency Management Alert, July 19, 2005

A low number of emergency rooms is leading to high rates of diversion of patients at Kansas City-area hospitals where officials complain that a lack of space is crippling their ability to effectively treat all patients, reports the Kansas City Business Journal.

Ambulance diversion occurs when staff at a hospital's emergency department determines they cannot treat another patient because of space and staff limitations. In the event of an emergency that results in an influx of patients-possibly bioterrorism, avian flu, or SARS-hospitals in many metropolitan areas throughout the country may struggle.

In Kansas City, the rates of diversion vary from month to month. But in March, hospitals diverted ambulances to other hospitals 12% of the time. On average over the first six months of this year, the diversion rate was 6.6%.

Anything greater than a 5% diversion rate is troubling, according to Robert Schwab, MD, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City.

The high diversion rates, says Schwab, can be partially attributed to the high volume of patients who use emergency departments for primary care because they don't have the insurance necessary to schedule an appointment at a doctor's office.

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