@article{ref1,
title="Examining emergency medical services' prehospital transport times for trauma patients during COVID-19",
journal="American journal of emergency medicine",
year="2021",
author="Jarvis, Stephanie and Salottolo, Kristin and Berg, Gina M. and Carrick, Matthew and Caiafa, Rachel and Hamilton, David and Banton, Kaysie and Lieser, Mark and Bar-Or, David",
volume="44",
number="",
pages="33-37",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Longer prehospital times were associated with increased odds for survival in trauma patients. The purpose of this study was to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected emergency medical services (EMS) prehospital times for trauma patients. <br><br>METHODS: This retrospective cohort study compared trauma patients transported via EMS to six US level I trauma centers admitted 1/1/19-12/31/19 (2019) and 3/16/20-6/30/20 (COVID-19). Outcomes included: total EMS pre-hospital time (dispatch to hospital arrival), injury to dispatch time, response time (dispatch to scene arrival), on-scene time (scene arrival to scene departure), and transportation time (scene departure to hospital arrival). Fisher's exact, chi-squared, or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used, alpha = 0.05. All times are presented as median (IQR) minutes. <br><br>RESULTS: There were 9400 trauma patients transported by EMS: 79% in 2019 and 21% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients were similar in demographics and transportation mode. Emergency room deaths were also similar between 2019 and COVID-19 [0.6% vs. 0.9%, p = 0.13].There were no differences between 2019 and during COVID-19 for total EMS prehospital time [44 (33, 63) vs. 43 (33, 62), p = 0.12], time from injury to dispatch [16 (6, 55) vs. 16 (7, 77), p = 0.41], response time [7 (5, 12) for both groups, p = 0.27], or on-scene time [16 (12-22) vs. 17 (12,22), p = 0.31]. Compared to 2019, transportation time was significantly shorter during COVID-19 [18 (13, 28) vs. 17 (12, 26), p = 0.01]. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The median transportation time for trauma patients was marginally significantly shorter during COVID-19; otherwise, EMS prehospital times were not significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0735-6757",
doi="10.1016/j.ajem.2021.01.091",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2021.01.091"
}