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Operations & systems

Nearest-hospital transport policy affects ED metrics

The impact of an ambulance destination policy change on emergency department care metrics in New York City
The American Journal of Emergency Medicine · Added 27 July 2026

EMS destination policies can affect ED care delivery metrics.

Study type

Cohort

Design

Retrospective multicentre before-after study

Participants

943,658 ED visits across NYC Health + Hospitals (481,260 pre; 462,398 post)

Main finding

Time-to-clinician fell 16.4% (15 to 12 min), ED length of stay fell 1% (151 to 149 min), LWBS fell from 0.9% to 0.7%, daily volume fell from 286 to 275; boarding unchanged

Caveat

Before-after design, US setting, cannot isolate policy from other temporal changes

Bottom line

Context only

Learning goal

Understand how ambulance destination policies shape emergency department access and patient flow outcomes.

More

• Topic: Operations & systems
• Daily scan: 27 July 2026

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