[MichaelCollins]

Using a parked ambulance as an ER room is gross mismanagement because the 'waiting room' for an ambulance 'ER room' is casualties spread across the entire city, such that the worst cannot be prioritized.

Even if the hospital's ER room has saturated capacity, moving all the casualties to the hospital waiting room as rapidly as possible still has utility because that allows the hospital to prioritize the worst, which they can't do if the worst is laying on the street a mile away with the ambulances all parked at the hospital.

[cameronh90]

I can promise you that the many smart people working in hospitals have considered this issue.

If someone is walking-wounded, they WILL be unloaded to sit and wait for 6 hours in a corridor.

The people who the ambulances are holding for long periods are those who are too sick to be left without attention. The paramedic staff continue to monitor them in order to escalate further if their condition deteriorates, and depending on the situation, medical staff from the hospital will be involved in this.

The ambulance staff obviously have a moral and legal duty of care, and can't just leave a seriously unwell patient on the floor outside the hospital entrance to get to the next call, which would likely be a patient no more ill than the one they just abandoned.

[captainredbeard]

I’m happy that healthcare workers tend to be more empathic than what you are suggesting and will take care of patients end-to-end. You can’t load balance sick humans on the fly to achieve some optimal outcome.