In recent years, growth in the demand for emergency medical services along with decline in the number of hospitals with emergency departments (EDs) has led to overcrowding. In periods of overcrowding, an ED can request the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agency to divert incoming ambulances to...

Several Emergency Medical Service (EMS) agencies across the US have demonstrated that the time spent by EDs on ambulance diversion can be reduced by implementing community-wide policies that restrict the duration and frequency of diversion episodes. However, the mechanisms through which these...