You call 911 expecting an ambulance to take you to the nearest hospital. But that hospital may tell the crew to go elsewhere when it cannot take more patients. This is ambulance diversion. If you need urgent treatment, that extra travel time can matter.
If the delay worsens your condition, responsibility does not always fall on one party. It may depend on who made the transport decision and whether an error caused harm.
When a hospital can divert an ambulance
Georgia requires hospitals with emergency services to keep a diversion policy. The policy must explain when diversion can start, who can start or end it and how the hospital will limit its use. The hospital must notify the local ambulance zoning system when diversion begins and ends.
A diversion notice does not always require the crew to avoid that hospital. The Georgia Department of Public Health says crews can still take you there if you are in critical condition and it is the closest appropriate hospital.
Who may be responsible for the delay
Responsibility for a delay may depend on who chose where to take you. Georgia rules tell ambulance services when they have to honor your hospital choice and where to take you if you cannot choose.
If you choose a hospital, the service generally has to take you there if it can meet your immediate needs, is within a reasonable distance and falls within the usual local transport or referral area.
If you cannot choose, the crew has to take you to the nearest hospital it believes can treat your condition. A hospital may face responsibility if it fails to follow required diversion steps. An ambulance service could face a separate claim if its crew broke the destination rules. In either case, you still have to show that the error caused a new injury or made your condition worse.
Check if there was negligence involved
If you believe the diversion delayed important care, you may want to gather the ambulance report and hospital records. A timeline of where the crew took you and when you received treatment can help identify the delay. Those records could also help show whether the issue involved negligence, an ambulance routing decision or both.