ArticleHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2020
Increased Emergency Calls during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A National Retrospective Study.
Article in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Retrospective Analysis of Nearly 3,000,000 Non-COVID-19 Mid- and High-Priority Ambulance Activations Before and During COVID-19: A National Study from Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- 'Every day was a learning curve': implementing COVID-19 triage protocols in UK ambulance services-a qualitative study of staff experiences.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2025Article
- A nationwide analysis of emergency medical services' responses during six waves of COVID-19.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Patterns of emergency dispatch calls and their changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prehospital emergency medical service: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the utilization of emergency medical services in Nairobi, Kenya.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2024Article
- Performance trend of the family physician referral system before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study in northern Iran.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Evaluating the disaster preparedness of emergency medical services (EMS) facilities: a cross-sectional investigation in Iran.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- COVID-19 pandemic effects on the emergency medical services utilization: A systematic review protocol.Journal of education and health promotion · 2024Article
- Healthcare Providers' Experience with Saudi Arabia's 937 Virtual Medical Call Centers and Telehealth.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Household preparedness for emergencies during COVID-19 pandemic among the general population of Nepal.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Right to Refuse: Understanding Healthcare Providers' Perspectives on Patient Autonomy in Emergency Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Reducing Violence in Riyadh's Emergency Departments: The Critical Role of Healthcare Providers.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Optimizing Operation Time and Travel Distance for Motorcycle Ambulances in Emergency Medical Services.Prehospital and disaster medicine · 2023Article
- Factors Relating to Decision Delay in the Emergency Department: Effects of Diagnostic Tests and Consultations.Open access emergency medicine : OAEM · 2023Article
- Do crashes happen more frequently at sunset in Ramadan than the rest of the year?Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2022Article
- The Emergency Performance of the Hungarian Ambulance Service during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Occurrence and Temporal Variability of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest during COVID-19 Pandemic in Comparison to the Pre-Pandemic Period in Poland-Observational Analysis of OSCAR-POL Registry.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The impact on the utilization of emergency medical services (EMS) in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied cumulative data from emergency calls collected from the SRCA. Data were separated into three periods: before COVID-19 (1 January-29 February 2020), during COVID-19 (1 March-23 April 2020), and during the Holy Month of Ramadan (24 April-23 May 2020). A marked increase of cases was handled during the COVID-19 period compared to the number before pandemic. Increases in all types of cases, except for those related to trauma, occurred during COVID-19, with all regions experiencing increased call volumes during COVID-19 compared with before pandemic. Demand for EMS significantly increased throughout Saudi Arabia during the pandemic period. Use of the mobile application ASAFNY to request an ambulance almost doubled during the pandemic but remained a small fraction of total calls. Altered weekly call patterns and increased call volume during the pandemic indicated not only a need for increased staff but an alteration in staffing patterns.
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Registered trials
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