Medica Jadertina, Vol. 51 No. 4, 2021.
Professional paper
Impact of the beginning of COVID 19 pandemic on prehospital emergency medical service utilization
Dominik Raos
; Emergency medical center Sveti Ivan Zelina, Croatia
Juraj Jug
orcid.org/0000-0002-3189-1518
; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine
Krešimir Okštajner
; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine
Damir Rošić
; Emergency medical center of Primorsko-goranska County, Rijeka, Croatia
Ingrid Prkačin
; Clinical hospital Merkur; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine
Abstract
Patients seek emergency medical service (EMS) help for non-urgent conditions every day. The aim of this
study was to analyze the impact of the first 28 days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia on prehospital
EMS utilization. A retrospective observational cohort study of all patients attended by EMS teams of Sveti
Ivan Zelina, Croatia, in the period from March 11 through April 8, and for every year between 2015 and 2020.
The data from the mentioned period for 2020 was also compared with the 8 weeks earlier period (December
18, 2019, through January 15, 2020). Data was collected from eHitna software, and the main measure of
outcome was determined by the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) diagnostic code, assigned by
the attending physician. During the study period, we observed 1171 walk-in patients and 750 on field
interventions. There was a decrease of 41% in walk-in cases during the pandemic from an average of 209 (±
36.89) cases between 2015 and 2019 to 123 walk-in cases in 2020. Also, there was a significant increase in
the proportion of cases involving injuries by 11% (p = 0.01) and mental health issues by 5% (p ˂ 0.01).
Considering that there were 41% more walk-in visits in the pre-pandemic period, we conclude that EMS is
used in large numbers for non-emergency conditions.
Keywords
emergency medical services; primary health care; public health; pandemics; COVID-19
Hrčak ID:
272391
URI
Publication date:
10.2.2022.
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