Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
A multisite survey of factors contributing to medically unnecessary ambulance transports.
To determine the social and demographic factors associated with medically unnecessary ambulance utilization, and to determine the willingness of patients to use alternate modes of transportation to the ED. ⋯ Patient age < 40 years and Medicaid coverage were associated with medically unnecessary ambulance use. Those patients for whom ambulance use was considered medically unnecessary commonly had no alternate means of transportation. Providing alternate means of unscheduled transportation may reduce the incidence of unnecessary ambulance use.