Note: UCSF Researcher Renee Y. Hsia, MD, is currently a CTSI KL2 Scholar. These findings have also been reported in national media including KQED, The Huffington Post, NPR, NBC.
By Elizabeth Fernandez at UCSF.edu
Hospitals in areas with large minority populations are more likely to be overcrowded and to divert ambulances, delaying timely emergency care, according to a multi-institutional study focused on California.
The researchers examined ambulance diversion in more than 200 hospitals around the state to assess whether overcrowding in emergency rooms disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities. They found that minorities are more at risk of being impacted by ER crowding and by diversion than non-minorities.
Our findings show a fundamental mismatch in supply and demand of emergency services.Renee Y. Hsia, MD
The study will be published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
“Our findings show a fundamental mismatch in supply and demand of emergency services,’’ said lead author Renee Y. Hsia, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at UCSF. She is also an attending physician in the emergency department at San Francisco General Hospital & Trauma Center.
Read more at UCSF.edu