- Even when patients live in the same communities, and close to the same hospitals, there are small racial and ethnic differences in where they're taken by ambulance crews, a U.S. study suggests.
"A sizable proportion of all EMS transports are not to the nearest ED, and this proportion is even larger among racial/ethnic minorities," said Amresh Hanchate, lead author of the study and a researcher at Boston University School of Medicine. National guidelines require ambulances to take patients to the nearest suitable hospital for the nature of their illness or injury. But this doesn't always happen, and some previous research suggests that longer transit times and transport to lower-quality hospitals farther from home can contribute to worse patient outcomes.