Gregory Jasani, Teferra Alemayehu, Timothy Chizmar, Lucy Wilson
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引用次数: 2
Abstract
Introduction and objectives: Emergency medical services (EMS) is an invaluable healthcare resource, providing life-saving care in the prehospital setting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been concerns that healthcare resources, including EMS, would be overwhelmed by the potential surge in critically ill patients. This study seeks to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EMS utilization in the state of Maryland.
Methods: A retrospective review of data from the Maryland Emergency Medical Services Data System was performed. EMS call volumes were compared from March 1 to August 31 in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020. In addition, adult cases from the three time periods that contained an EMS impression of stroke, cardiac arrest, asthma, traumatic injury, ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), sepsis, and overdose were also analyzed.
Results: There was a significant decrease in overall EMS call volumes in the state of Maryland in the first 6 months of 2020 compared to the prior 2 years. While the total number of calls decreased, a higher proportion of patients in 2020 had EMS impressions of cardiac arrest, STEMI, stroke, and traumatic injury compared to the previous 2 years. Additionally, there was an increase in termination of resuscitation for out of hospital cardiac arrest.
Conclusion: In the state of Maryland, overall call volumes decreased, but the proportion of EMS patients with time-sensitive illnesses increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
期刊介绍：
With the publication of the American Journal of Disaster Medicine, for the first time, comes real guidance in this new medical specialty from the country"s foremost experts in areas most physicians and medical professionals have never seen…a deadly cocktail of catastrophic events like blast wounds and post explosion injuries, biological weapons contamination and mass physical and psychological trauma that comes in the wake of natural disasters and disease outbreak. The journal has one goal: to provide physicians and medical professionals the essential informational tools they need as they seek to combine emergency medical and trauma skills with crisis management and new forms of triage.
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