Details Page Template

Public Safety

department of EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

 FY2016-17
Target: 35% of ZSFG Emergency Department hours with active Ambulance Diversion status
Status: NOT MEETING TARGET

FY2015-16
Result: 52% of ZSFG Emergency Department hours with active Ambulance Diversion status  

This measure represents the average percentage of hours per month that the Emergency Department of the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG) is on Ambulance Diversion.

Ambulance Diversion occurs when a hospital temporarily closes itself to select patients transported via 911 ambulances due to an overload of patients in the Emergency Department. Ambulance Diversion may only be declared by a hospital when its Emergency Department has an overload of patients and it cannot safely provide care to any additional 911 ambulance patients. During ambulance diversion, ZSFG unable to accept certain lower-priority ambulance traffic, such as non-life-threatening cases, but continues to accept patients needing trauma care, specialty services, walk-ins, and patients in custody.    

ZSFG is the only designated level one trauma center for San Francisco and northern San Mateo County. As such, ZSFG may elect to invoke "Trauma Override," which maintains its Ambulance Diversion status even when the Department of Emergency Management has suspended the diversion status of other hospitals in the area.

AMBULANCE DIVERSION HOURS FOR ZSFG

 

HOW THE DEPARTMENT IS PERFORMING

As the only designated level one trauma center for San Francisco and northern San Mateo County, demand for the ZSFG Emergency Department is high. Ambulance Diversion and Trauma Override rates have steadily increased over the past 10 years with a particularly sharp increase in the last two years. ​ZSFG’s ambulance diversion rate is consistently well above the target of 35 percent and continues to increase, reaching 67 percent of capacity in January 2017.

 Ambulance Diversion is a potential indicator of capacity issues or process improvement opportunities within the Emergency Department or hospital.

[Notes on why the large jump 2014 and where the 35% Target came from]

[Notes on Improvement Actions or Plans. Include mention of Heather and Celeste's dashboard.]

HOW PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED

This measure represents the percentage of hours in the month that ZSFG was on Ambulance Diversion. The hours are tracked by ZSFG’s Reddinet system daily, and within 30 days of month end, reported as the percentage of monthly hours.

According to Policy 5020 from the Department of Emergency Management, ZSFG must change remove their Diversion status immediately upon relieving the situation that necessitated its use. 

The number displayed on the scorecard page represents a fiscal-year-to-date average of the values in the chart above.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 

DATA

Please visit datasf.org for dataset.