The article says 45%, but that included emercency rooms in rural areas. Emergency Rooms in metropolitan areas that had to divert incoming patients number more than 65% for 2003.
This means that in case of a Pandemic, Surge capacity is practically nonexistant. If a mod can post the graph in the link, the story makes more sense.
QuickStats: Percentage of Hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) Having to Divert Ambulances, by Selected Characteristics --- United States, 2003
Quickstats
* MSA = Metropolitan Statistical Area, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
? Estimate does not meet standard of reliability or precision because the relative standard error is >30%.
? Number of visits annually.
Ambulance diversion occurs when EDs are too crowded to handle any more critically ill or injured patients and request that ambulances bypass them for another hospital. In 2003, an estimated 45% of hospital EDs were on diversion status at some time during the previous year. Ambulance diversions were more common in EDs with larger volumes of patients and those in metropolitan areas.
SOURCES: 2003 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/ahcd/ahcd1.htm; Burt C, McCaig L, Valverde R. Analysis of ambulance transports and diversions among US emergency departments. Ann Emerg Med 2006;47:317--26.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5513a10.htm
This means that in case of a Pandemic, Surge capacity is practically nonexistant. If a mod can post the graph in the link, the story makes more sense.
QuickStats: Percentage of Hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) Having to Divert Ambulances, by Selected Characteristics --- United States, 2003
Quickstats
* MSA = Metropolitan Statistical Area, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
? Estimate does not meet standard of reliability or precision because the relative standard error is >30%.
? Number of visits annually.
Ambulance diversion occurs when EDs are too crowded to handle any more critically ill or injured patients and request that ambulances bypass them for another hospital. In 2003, an estimated 45% of hospital EDs were on diversion status at some time during the previous year. Ambulance diversions were more common in EDs with larger volumes of patients and those in metropolitan areas.
SOURCES: 2003 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/ahcd/ahcd1.htm; Burt C, McCaig L, Valverde R. Analysis of ambulance transports and diversions among US emergency departments. Ann Emerg Med 2006;47:317--26.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5513a10.htm