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About 4,000 emergency dispatch centers in the United States
assign 334,000 ambulances to transport 25 million people to
emergency departments (EDs) each year. Currently, after the
ambulance arrives, as many as 30 percent of patients are not
transported, suggesting that it might be safe to triage some
patients to other resources. Terri Schmidt, M.D., M.S., of
Oregon Health & Science University, and colleagues worked to
develop a decision rule that could allow 911/emergency medical
services (EMS) dispatchers to identify callers with an immediate
need for an emergency medical