ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION ONLINE FIRST Association Between Ambulance Diversion and Survival Among Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction

scribe the state of emergency depart-ments (EDs) in the United States as reaching a breaking point—the ED sys-tem experiences increased utilization but decreased capacity.1,2 These trends have led to amilieu of problems for pa-tients, such as longer waiting times,3-5 overextended staff,6,7 and disruptions to ambulance services.8,9 Ambulance diversion, a practice in which EDs are temporarily closed to ambulance traffic due to overcrowd-ing or lack of available resources,might be especially problematic for patients experiencing time-sensitive condi