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Computer routes ambulances to less packed ERs
05:14 PM CST on Monday, January 14, 2008
The next time you call for an ambulance, you may end up at a hospital you’re not familiar with.
The Houston Fire Department is phasing in a new computer program that assigns ambulances to hospitals that are the least busy.
That means you could wind up in the emergency room of small hospital and not necessarily one that is closest to you.
“Our big hospitals, the ones that get a lot of ambulance patients, will see less ambulance traffic going there so when somebody needs to be brought to that hospital they won't wind up waiting in the hallway quite as long as they may have in the past,” said Dr. David Persse, the EMS Physician Director for HFD.
The fire department says it will still take patients to the hospital of their choice when it is feasible.
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