The effect of on-line medical control centralization on ambulance destination

Controversy regarding the establishment of on-line medical control in a single hospital in a regional Emergency Medical Service System is based, in part, upon the suspicion that ambulances might be diverted to that hospital. Ambulance transports to the University Hospital of Portland, Oregon, were studied over a six year period coinciding with that facilities' assumption of on-line medical control functions. No increases in ambulance transports to that facility could be demonstrated. Other variables resulted in absolute decreases in the number of these transports.