"Whether you are bleeding to death from an injury, having a heart attack, or having a stroke, the common denominator is time. In those life-threatening emergencies, we must blindly rely upon the system to rapidly deliver us to the care that we need," says lead author Brendan Carr. He and his team wanted to quantify the time it would take various individuals around the country to arrive at an emergency room, as well as the quality of care one could expect to receive. It's been noted in past studies that higher-volume hospitals usually have better patient outcomes because they are better staffed and may provide more sophisticated treatment and equipment.... [H]igher-volume hospitals usually have better patient outcomes because they are better staffed and may provide more sophisticated treatment and equipment.