Impact of COVID-19 on prehospital emergency demands
Santé Vaud
COVID-19 pandemic impacts not only the COVID-19 patients but also the patients seeking for emergency help due to other health issues. Such collateral impact has already been described, e.g. drastic reduction in number of patients seeking medical help for cardiovascular diseases. Other collateral effects are expected to occur, and their identifications is the object of our investigation. To do so, we will perform a statistical descriptive and comparative analysis of ambulance primary emergency missions during the years 2018 (n=35’188, analyses already done) and 2020 in the State of Vaud. Variable analyzed will be number of missions, patient age and gender, health issues (33 categories), severity of cases encountered (NACA scores) and mission time and locations. Our results will quantify the difference in health issues, severity and the patient population before and during the outbreak and identify consequences of COVID-19 on paramedic missions as well as potential collateral effects. It will also provide critical information to develop collaboration between prehospital healthcare professionals and provide recommendation related to epidemics.