Negative Financial Impact of Ambulance Diversion and Patient Elopement

Emergency department overcrowding might cause EDs to go on ambulance diversion and patients to leave without being seen. These authors assessed the financial impact of ambulance diversion and patient elopements at a single nonprofit teaching hospital. (See also Journal Watch Emergency Medicine Jan 12 2007.)

Reviewers used information from 61,256 patient visits during fiscal year 2005. They determined the possible net revenue lost from the 1332 patients who left without being seen and the 648 patients projected to have been taken elsewhere during the 354 hours of ambulance diversion. Potential net revenue lost to ambulance diversions was $3.15 million, and that lost to patient elopements was $731,000 — totaling nearly $4 million.