Racial Disparities in Mortality Associated with Ambulance Diversion

To determine whether ambulance diversion affects black and white patients differently, researchers evaluated a database of admissions to every nonfederal, general acute care hospital in California from 2001 to 2011. Information on ambulance diversion was collected from local emergency medical services agencies.

Roughly 91,000 admissions for acute myocardial infarction were evaluated. Analyses controlled for patient and hospital factors and access to and receipt of relevant treatments, such as thrombolysis. There was no association of race and diversion with 30-day mortality, but on days when the local emergency department (ED) experienced moderate diversion (6–12 hours), 90-day mortality was 3.1 percentage points higher in blacks than whites…