A county in Maryland has launched a program to speed the return of ambulances to service after patients have been brought to the emergency room, WTOP-FM reports.
Previously in Montgomery County, ambulances that brought patients to the ER could not leave until patients were given a hospital bed.
Ambulances and emergency medical service providers often had to sit for "30, 60, 70, 80 minutes waiting for a bed," along with the patient, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Capt. Ben Kaufman told WTOP.
But on Feb. 1, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue launched a direct-to-triage program, to identify patients stable enough to wait on their own in the ER lobby, allowing ambulances and EMS providers to leave and take other calls.
Since the program began, about 10 patients a day have been determined to be stable enough to wait in the ER without the ambulance waiting with them, according to the report.
"We're just going to keep rolling with it, and we think we're going to have some decent success if we look at this on a bigger picture," Mr. Kaufman told WTOP.