ArticleBMC emergency medicine2021
The effect of COVID-19 on emergency medical service call volumes and patient acuity: a cross-sectional study in Niagara, Ontario.
Article in BMC emergency medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changes in prehospital emergency medical services dispatch mission patterns and their public health implications during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic phases on emergency medical services reaction times in Southern Poland.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Clinical, Economical, and Organizational Impact of Chronic Ischemic Cardiovascular Disease in Italy: Evaluation of 2019 Nationwide Hospital Admissions Data.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prehospital emergency medical service: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Patients' use of Danish emergency medical services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a register-based study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Ambulance Services Attendance for Mental Health and Overdose Before and During COVID-19 in Canada and the United Kingdom: Interrupted Time Series Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Identifying Features of a System of Practice to Inform a Contemporary Competency Framework for Paramedics in Canada.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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- Acute care pathway assessed through performance indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic in OECD countries (2020-2021): a scoping review.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- COVID-19 pandemic effects on the emergency medical services utilization: A systematic review protocol.Journal of education and health promotion · 2024Article
- Burden of delayed discharge on acute hospital medical wards: A retrospective ecological study in Rome, Italy.PloS one · 2024Observational
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- The trend of change in the role of pre-hospital emergency medical services in Iran's healthcare system: a situational analysis.BMC emergency medicine · 2023Article
- The impact of COVID-19 epidemic on emergency department visits of older patients in Taiwan.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
- Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services Utilization Amid COVID-19 in 2020: Descriptive Study Based on Routinely Collected Dispatch Data in Bavaria, Germany.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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- Lived experience of Iranian pre-hospital medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive phenomenological study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is a major public health problem. Subsequently, emergency medical services (EMS) have anecdotally experienced fluctuations in demand, with reports across Canada of both increased and decreased demand. Our primary objective was to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on call volumes for several determinants in Niagara Region EMS. Our secondary objective was to assess changes in paramedic-assigned patient acuity scores as determined using the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS).
methodsWe analyzed data from a regional EMS database related to call type, volume, and patient acuity for January to May 2016-2020. We used statistical methods to assess differences in EMS calls between 2016 and 2019 and 2020.
resultsA total of 114,507 EMS calls were made for the period of January 1 to May 26 between 2016 and 2020, inclusive. Overall, the incidence rate of EMS calls significantly decreased in 2020 compared to the total EMS calls in 2016-2019. Motor vehicle collisions decreased in 2020 relative to 2016-2019 (17%), while overdoses relatively increased (70%) in 2020 compared to 2016-2019. Calls for patients assigned a higher acuity score increased (CTAS 1) (4.1% vs. 2.9%).
conclusionWe confirmed that overall, EMS calls have decreased since the emergence of COVID-19. However, this effect on call volume was not consistent across all call determinants, as some call types rose while others decreased. These findings indicate that COVID-19 may have led to actual changes in emergency medical service demand and will be of interest to other services planning for future pandemics or further waves of COVID-19.
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