One large-scale effort began in the mid-2000s, about midway through the UCSF study. It involves dispatching patients with a particularly deadly type of heart attack, known by the acronym STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction), to 136 hospitals around the state specifically certified to receive and rapidly treat them.
These “STEMI receiving centers,” as they’re known, have advanced cardiac technology and may not refuse STEMI patients even when their emergency departments are otherwise diverting ambulances.
And while other kinds of heart attack patients still may be diverted to a nonspecialized hospital, there’s a process to quickly get them to a receiving center if their symptoms worsen, said Dr. Marianne Gausche-Hill, medical director of Los Angeles County’s EMS agency.
Dr. Marc Futernick, president of the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians and medical director of the emergency department at a downtown Los Angeles hospital, favors a more radical solution. He believes hospitals should agree to stop diverting ambulances altogether, except in extreme cases. He recently asked several emergency department directors in his area to commit to a no-diversion policy.
“They didn’t agree,” he said.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit national health policy news service.