EMTest

At college campuses across the nation, student and professional emergency medical technicians (EMTs) work to assist students who have been consuming too much alcohol. Part of this process is diagnosing whether a student is too intoxicated and must be brought to the hospital. The student-run Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) handles this role at Penn. Getting “MERTed” as students colloquially call being taken to the hospital by MERT is both costly and time-consuming for students. For Penn’s hospital system, it is important to avoid false positive diagnoses of over intoxication. This is because unnecessary usage of medical resources such as ambulances diverts attention from those who truly need it. According to US News, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania admitted 64,423 emergency room cases in the last year alone. A reduction in these cases, especially during peak times, could be argued to improve the quality of care that the hospital can provide. Thus, both care providers and patients prefer more accurate diagnosis.