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Table 1 Characteristics of EMS Transports: Massachusetts vs. Comparison States, 2007–2012

From: Ambulance diversion and ED destination by race/ethnicity: evaluation of Massachusetts’ ambulance diversion ban

Characteristic

All

Massachusetts

Comparison states

2007–2012

Pre-ban

Post-ban

Pre-ban

Post-ban

Number of ED visits

361,006

33,552

92,723

54,602

149,869

 White patients, non-Hispanic

181,337

26,319

72,293

17,362

49,954

 Black patients, non-Hispanic

102,121

4173

11,756

21,253

57,417

 Hispanic patients

65,889

2029

5886

14,471

38,135

 Other patients

10,659

1031

2788

1516

4363

Age, %

 66–74

26.5%

25.0%

27.5%

26.7%

26.8%

 75–84

40.8%

41.2%

37.2%

43.6%

39.6%

 85+

32.7%

33.9%

35.4%

29.8%

33.6%

Female, %

66.9%

66.7%

67.4%

68.2%

66.4%

Medicaid (dual coverage) eligible, %

27.2%

31%

29.8%

26.4%

27.6%

Patient status indicators

 Advanced Life Support (ALS) transports, %

64.9%

53.0%

54.2%

65.1%

65.4%

 ED visit resulting in hospital admission, %

55.2%

59.4%

55.6%

57.4%

54.2%

 Principal ED diagnosis, %

  Acute myocardial infarction

1.7%

1.9%

1.5%

2.1%

1.6%

  Congestive heart failure

3.6%

4.2%

4.1%

3.7%

3.5%

  Pneumonia

3.1%

3.8%

3.0%

3.3%

3.0%

  Stroke

2.1%

1.7%

1.5%

2.5%

2.0%

  Sepsis

3.1%

1.2%

2.2%

2.6%

3.4%

  Gastrointestinal bleeding

1.8%

1.5%

1.7%

1.9%

1.8%

  Arrhythmia

3.9%

4.4%

3.8%

4.1%

3.8%

  Serious injury/trauma

3.9%

3.0%

3.3%

4.4%

3.8%

  Other

76.9%

78.3%

78.8%

75.5%

77.2%

Area characteristics

 Number of EDs in 3-mile vicinity, %

  0 or 1

82.9%

70.1%

77.9%

82.6%

83.4%

  2 or more

17.1%

29.9%

22.1%

17.4%

16.6%

 Urban location, No. (%)

  Zip code in largest 16 cities

14.6%

14.5%

14.0%

14.8%

14.6%

  Other zip codes

85.4%

85.5%

86.0%

85.3%

85.4%

 Zip code households in poverty, %

  Lowest poverty tertile

34.8%

32.6%

34.6%

33.3%

35.4%

  Second tertile

32.5%

29.0%

29.9%

32.8%

32.5%

  Highest poverty tertile

32.7%

38.4%

35.6%

33.9%

32.1%

 Zip codes with > 25% census population black, %

15.8%

10.1%

9.4%

16.3%

15.9%

 Zip codes with > 25% census population Hispanic, %

24.5%

13.8%

11.3%

25.7%

24.9%

  1. 1) Pre-ban refers to January 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, and post-ban refers to January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2012
  2. 2) Note that the All column includes all EMS transports in the study period. The Massachusetts and Comparison states columns include only the transports during the pre-ban and post-ban periods; the counts from the transition period are not reported. The All column includes all the periods
  3. 3) We have reported the number of EMS transports by race/ethnicity to indicate the oversampling of racial/ethnic minorities. All the remaining summary statistics (% distribution) were based on the stratified sampling weights to reflect the characteristics of the underlying eligible Medicare enrollees (approximately 5.5 million each year) from the 3354 zip codes included in the study
  4. 4) The largest 16 cities were: Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Indianapolis, IN, Jacksonville, FL Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; San Antonio, TX; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA We included only the zip codes within the city (not metropolitan) area