Increased ambulance on-scene times but unaffected response times during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southern Denmark

Abstract

Background During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lockdown was imposed on the Danish society. Reports from other countries that were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic before Denmark instilled fear of flooding of the emergency departments. To mitigate this flooding, increased competencies were conveyed to the paramedics in the ambulances aiming to allow for a release of a higher number of patients prehospitally. The increased competencies in the prehospital personnel were expected to increase the on-scene time and thus the total workload of the ambulances potentially resulting in delays in the acute care. We sought to elucidate the effects of the pandemic on the workload of the prehospital system during the first wave. Methods This was a retrospective study using operational data from the regional emergency medical dispatch centre in the Region of Southern Denmark. We collected the number of ambulance runs, the response times, the on-scene times, and the mission outcome of all ambulance runs with lights and sirens in the Region of Southern Denmark during the first wave of the pandemic. We compared the numbers with a similar period in the year before. Results Compared with the year before the pandemic we observed a 10.3% reduction in call volume and a corresponding reduction in the total number of missions with lights and sirens. We found an increase in on-scene times in both missions with patients conveyed to hospital (20.6 min vs. 18.7 min) and missions with non-conveyed patients (37.4 min versus 30.7 min). The response times were unaffected. Conclusion The increased on-scene times of the ambulances may largely be attributed to time utilised to exert the increased competencies concerning treat-and-release of patients.. Despite an increased on-scene time of the ambulances, we believe that the combination of a reduction in the number of total missions and the existing capacity in the ambulance service in the Region of Southern Denmark nullified the prolongation of ambulance response times that was seen in other countries during the pandemic. This capacity allowed for time spent performing in-depth examinations of patients with the potential to be released at the scene.

Time indices of pre-hospital EMS missions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in Iran

“…The Delay time had no significant change before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eskol et al, Saffy et al, and Lim et al supported our study and indicated no significant changes in the lag time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 17 – 19 ]. Since noisy phone line and the Internet interference often affected the lag time [ 20 ], the COVID-19 pandemic had no effect on the lag time in the above-mentioned studies.…”

“…Similar results might be because patient triage in the emergency department had been longer during the COVID-19 pandemic (taking a history of the COVID-19 symptoms and examining the patients in terms of travel to suspected areas). Eskol et al (2020) compared the changes in the rate of EMS calls in southern Denmark before and during the COVID-19 pandemic but found no significant changes in the response time before and during the pandemic [ 17 ]. Moreover, Satty et al (2021) investigated emergency responses to non-traffic accidents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania, the United States and found no changes in the response time before and during the pandemic [ 18 ], so Eskol et al and Satty et al did not support our results.…”

The effect of regional distribution of isolation rooms in emergency departments on ambulance travel time during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Previous studies have reported an increase in the time required to visit the emergency room during COVID-19 [4,16], and consequently, patient prognoses for various diseases deteriorated [5,[16][17][18][19][20][21]. Further, delayed patient arrival time to the hospital worsened prognosis for diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiac arrest [22][23][24][25].…”

Subjective perceptions of workload and stress of emergency service personnel depending on work-related behavior and experience patterns

“…Stress in the work context of healthcare workers and thus also general stress tended to increase in the course of the pandemic, e.g., due to increased hygiene measures and concern about infections [24,27]. A study from Denmark showed longer operation times in prehospital operations and transport to the hospital, although the frequency of alarm operations decreased at the beginning of the pandemic [9]. All of this can have an additional impact on recovery and stress.…”