We set out to see how much of an impact COVID-19 had on patients contacting EMS and then refusing to be transported to a hospital out of fear and how much these patterns changed based on patient characteristics.
AUSTIN, Texas (PRWEB)
August 13, 2020
ESO, the leading data and software company serving emergency medical services (EMS), fire departments, hospitals, and state EMS/Trauma offices, today announced it is the recipient of the 2020 Best Research award from the International Scientific EMS Symposium. The winning research is based on national prehospital data from ESO that looks at the impact of COVID-19 on EMS transport patterns for patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome and includes more than 1 million patient care records from the first three months (March 1, 2020-May 31, 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 911 calls for time-sensitive conditions – including acute coronary syndrome – declined,” said Dr. Remle Crowe, ESO Research Scientist and lead author. “We set out to see how much of an impact COVID-19 had on patients contacting EMS and then refusing to be transported to a hospital out of fear and how much these patterns changed based on patient characteristics.”
Key High-Level Findings Include:
- Acute Coronary Syndrome EMS Encounters Dropped: EMS encounters for patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome were lower during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same time period in 2019.
- Non-Transports Increased: More EMS encounters resulted in non-transport, even for patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome, compared to the same time period in 2019.
- Non-Transport Rate Differed by Patient Race/Gender: During the first few months of the pandemic, EMS encounters for Black patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome were less likely to result in transport to a hospital when compared to the control period in the prior year. In both the pandemic and the control periods, female and Hispanic patients were less likely to be transported by EMS.
“We are committed to improving the health and safety of communities through the power of data,” added Dr. Crowe. “We are hopeful this research will provide insight into how prehospital patients experiencing time-sensitive conditions like suspected heart attacks and other cardiac emergencies are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how our EMS partners can equip themselves to respond – especially in medically underserved communities.”
The research abstract will be presented at the upcoming EMS World Expo in September 2020.
For up to date COVID-19 EMS surveillance data, please visit ESO’s COVID-19 Resource Center.
About the COVID-19 Research
The control data are based on more than 1 million records from 1,241 agencies from March 1, 2019-May 31, 2019. The study data are based on more than 1 million records from 1,241 agencies from March 1, 2020-May 31, 2020. All agencies are part of the ESO Data Collaborative, a national research database of de-identified prehospital patient care records.
About ESO
ESO (ESO Solutions, Inc.) is dedicated to improving community health and safety through the power of data. Since its founding in 2004, the company continues to pioneer innovative, user-friendly software to meet the changing needs of today’s EMS agencies, fire departments, hospitals and state EMS offices. ESO currently serves thousands of customers throughout North America with a broad software portfolio, including the industry-leading ESO Electronic Health Record (EHR), the next generation ePCR; ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE), the first-of-its-kind healthcare interoperability platform; ESO Fire RMS, the gold standard for fire Record Management Systems; trauma, burn and stroke registry software; and ESO State Repository. ESO is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.eso.com.
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