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In an emergency, where ambulances take patients differs by race, study finds

The Boston University study is the first to look for racial differences in where patients are taken by emergency medical services.
Source: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Ambulance crews are generally supposed to take seriously ill patients to the closest hospital that offers the necessary emergency services, such as stroke or trauma care. However, new research shows that patients are sometimes transported somewhere else, and that their race may have something to do with it.

A national published in JAMA Network Open on Friday found there were differences in the emergency departments serve a high proportion of people who are uninsured or on Medicaid, and other vulnerable populations.

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