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OBJECTIVE: Emergency medical services transport and emergency department misuse among persons with behavioral health conditions is a concern. Administrative data were used to examine medical transports and hospital admissions among persons with behavioral health conditions. METHODS: Data on 70,126 medical transports to emergency departments in three southeastern counties were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with general medical transports, fewer behavioral health transports resulted in a hospital admission. Among behavioral health transports, persons with schizophrenia were 2.62 times more likely than those with substance use disorders to be admitted, and persons with mood disorders were 4.36 times more likely than those with substance use disorders to be admitted. Also, among behavioral health transports, rural transports were less likely than more urban transports to result in a hospital admission. CONCLUSIONS: More training of emergency medical services personnel and more behavioral health crisis resources, especially targeting rural areas and substance use disorders, are needed.
Cuddeback et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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