Conventional wisdom tells us that when someone calls 911 in need of medical care, the ambulance should rush to the scene as quickly as possible. But as a new study finds, that’s not necessarily the case. A recent study from the Annals of Emergency Medicine found that a faster ambulance response time doesn’t necessarily save lives.

In the study, emergency physicians Zachary Meisel and Jesse Pines studied more than 3,000 trauma patients admitted to the emergency room. Patients suffered from a wide range of conditions, including high blood pressure, head injuries, bleeding, etc. Each patient’s outcome was compared with their ambulance’s response time, and the numbers showed that faster ambulance response times did not appear to improve survival rates.

Obviously there are medical conditions when every second counts, such as cardiac arrest or stroke. But a broken ankle, lower back pain or minor to moderate blood loss are hardly cause for an ambulance to make a mad rush across town.  In fact, ambulances rushing to respond to emergency calls are frequently involved in fatal auto accidents, with medics being killed three times more often than the average U.S. worker.

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