Investigating the trend of Prehospital Emergency Missions in Mashhad before and after COVID-19

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MSc, Department of Biostatistics, Social Determinants of Health Research center, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 MSc, Prehospital emergency department statistics expert, Department of Emergency medical services, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Torbat Heidariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heidariyeh, Iran.

4 Head of Prehospital Emergency medical services, Department of Emergency medical services, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

5 Technical and Operations Deputy of Prehospital Emergency medical services, Department of Emergency medical services, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

6 Research interface of the Department of Emergency medical services, Department of Emergency medical services, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to compare the number of emergency missions (cardiac, respiratory, poisoning, traffic accidents, types of traumas, etc.), the number of calls and operating times of the prehospital emergency in Mashhad before and after covid-19. Also our policies in epidemics future incidents are determined based on it, and we can have better planning in case of similar crises.
Methods: This study is descriptive and retrospective. Information divided into two periods: before Covid-19 from February 2018 to January 2020 and after Covid-19 from February 2020 to January 2022 . Chi-square test was used to compare the mean of the classified data, and logistic regression was used to calculate the odds-ratio the disease in emergency missions in two groups.
Results: The results showed that after the epidemic, 56.4% of these were men, and 43.6% were women, and the mean age was 45.20 ± 21.5. The missions after the epidemic showed that the mean age of the patients was 30.5 ± 16.3. The number of missions related to respiratory problems increased by 40% and fever and infectious diseases by 32% after the epidemic. The odds ratio of mission with patients with symptoms and respiratory problems before covid-19 (OR=1.43 CI=1.41-1.45, p =0.000) was 1.43 times compared after covid-19.
Conclusion: During the Covid-19 epidemic the number of missions and emergency calls increased. The prehospital emergency department increased its operational capacity by changing its plans and approaches by increasing its response capacity and the number of staff and related training.

Keywords


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