Hospital bed shortages delayed ambulances 37,000 hours in Los Angeles in 2013, which cost the city approximately $6 million, according to a report from Pacific-Palisades Patch.
The number of delayed hours increased 30 percent between 2012 and 2013, though ambulance transport volumes went up only 2 percent. The delays may have also prevented ambulances from responding to other 911 calls, according to the report.
The Los Angeles Fire Department is working with a coalition of leaders from the 57 hospitals to which it transports patients to remedy the problem, reducing the number of "super-users," releasing a resource tool kit for hospitals to cut down on wait times, creating nurse dispatch centers for resolving medical issues by phone and generally cutting down on inefficiencies at the root of the issue, according to the report.]
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