Sections
Diversion
Hospitals can declare diversion when an emergency department has an overload of patients and cannot safely care for more 911 patients. When a hospital is on diversion, ambulances must take patients to other hospitals for the next 2 hours. There are exceptions for critical cases.
The chart below shows the percent of time on diversion by hospital and month. Hospitals have a policy standard of being on diversion less than 30% of the time for 2 consecutive months.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The data are collected and hosted by ReddiNet – a service by the Hospital Associations of Southern California.
List of abbreviated and full hospital names:
- Chinese (Chinese Hospital)
- CPMC - Davies (California Pacific Medical Center - Davies)
- CPMC - Mission Bernal (California Pacific Medical Center - Mission Bernal)
- CPMC - Van Ness (California Pacific Medical Center - Van Ness)
- Kaiser (Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center)
- Saint Francis (Saint Francis Memorial Hospital)
- St. Mary's (St. Mary's Medical Center)
- UCSF - Mission Bay (University of California, San Francisco Medical Center - Mission Bay)
- UCSF - Parnassus (University of California, San Francisco Medical Center - Parnassus)
- VA (Veterans Administration Medical Center)
- ZSFG (Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center)
If 4 or more hospitals are on diversion at the same time, no hospital can use diversion for 4 hours.
There's one exception: Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). ZSFG is the only trauma center in San Francisco. Even when diversion is not allowed, ZSFG can declare trauma override. Trauma override works just like regular diversion meaning ambulances must take patients to another hospital.
The San Francisco hospitals are working to reduce both forms of diversion: regular diversion and trauma override. The chart below shows how many hours each hospital was on diversion. For ZSFG, both regular diversion and trauma override are included.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The data is collected and hosted by ReddiNet – a service by the Hospital Associations of Southern California.
Diversion suspension
Diversion suspension is when 4 or more hospitals go on diversion at once. When diversion suspension occurs, no hospital can go on diversion for the next 4 hours. The only exception is Zuckerberg San Francisco General (ZSFG) who can use trauma override. This works the same as diversion but is only available to ZSFG because they are the city’s only trauma center.
Diversion suspension can provide insight on how frequently diversion is being used. Months where diversion suspension is high indicate strain on the EMS and hospital systems. The chart below shows the percent of time in diversion suspension each month.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The data is collected and hosted by ReddiNet – a service by the Hospital Associations of Southern California.