Hospital Diversions

About the Data

The hospital diversions dashboard tracks how often hospitals divert incoming ambulances to other area hospitals due to critical hospital resources being temporarily unavailable. Reducing the number of hospital diversions that occur is important because the extra minutes it takes to transport a critically ill patient to a more distant hospital may put patient care at risk. To limit the number of hospital diversions in our community, Milwaukee County EMS administrative and medical direction leadership in 2016 worked with area hospitals to develop a shared policy to end capacity-related diversions in the county. This patient-centered policy stopped hospitals from diverting patients due to high volume in their emergency departments. Limited diversions are still allowed in specific cases where a resource, such as a CT scanner, is unavailable or in cases of disaster, such as a power outage or flood.