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The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on pre-hospital services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2024

Kadir Çavuş Open the ORCID record for Kadir Çavuş [Opens in a new window] ,
Meryem Akbulut Open the ORCID record for Meryem Akbulut [Opens in a new window]  and
Afşin A. Kaya Open the ORCID record for Afşin A. Kaya [Opens in a new window]
Kadir Çavuş
Affiliation:
First and Emergency Aid, Artvin Çoruh University, Artvin, Turkey
Meryem Akbulut
Affiliation:
First and Emergency Aid, Yozgat Bozok University, Yozgat, Turkey
Afşin A. Kaya*
Affiliation:
Department of Property Protection and Safety, Havza Vocatıonal School, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Türkiye
*
Corresponding author: Afsin A. Kaya; Emails: afsinahmet.kaya@omu.edu.tr, afsinkaya@hotmail.com.
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Abstract

Background:

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease outbreak started in China and went on to affect the entire world. Healthcare providers were among the communities that faced severe challenges during the pandemic, and this was especially true of Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services (PHEMS) providers.

Objectives:

This study aims to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on service requests submitted to PHEMS providers via calls made to emergency hotlines.

Methods:

Data were obtained on calls made to 112 (the emergency hotline) during March – August 2020 (i.e., during the pandemic) and the same period the previous year (i.e., the pre-pandemic period). These 2 data sets were analyzed and compared using the SPSS 26 software package (IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, USA).

Results:

The results of the analysis indicated that the total number of emergency calls received during the pandemic period (11 745) increased compared to the pre-pandemic period (10 747), whereas there was a decrease in the proportion of trauma-related emergency calls during the pandemic period (5.3%) compared to the pre-pandemic period (6.8%). Furthermore, there was a higher proportion of extended service times among ambulances serving in PHEMS during the pandemic period (ambulance movements longer than 90 seconds: 15.6%) compared to the pre-pandemic period (ambulance movements longer than 90 seconds: 8.6%). Non-emergency ambulance usage rate was 44.90% in the pre-pandemic period and 38.90% in the pandemic period.

Conclusions:

As the study’s results show that there was an increase in the number of calls to PHEMS during the pandemic period, especially given that a significant portion of these calls consisted of non-emergency calls, it is recommended that measures be taken to reduce the excessive load on PHEMS during a pandemic.

Keywords

ambulanceCOVID-19emergency hotlinepandemicPre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services (PHEMS)
Type
Research Letters
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 18 , 2024 , e30
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc

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