J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2022 Oct;33(5):497-505.

The effect of COVID-19 epidemic on 119 transportation time for severely ill patients

• Park JE
• Choi SH
• Yoon YH
• Kim JY
• Cho YD
• Lee JY
• Park SJ

Abstract

Objective
As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, it is believed that COVID-19 may have affected the transportation time of 119 emergency medical services (EMS). However, there are only a few studies to support this claim. The current study was undertaken to investigate the altered pre-hospital transportation time according to the severity of the patient after the COVID-19 period.
Methods
This is a retrospective observational study conducted on patients aged 15 or older who visited three emergency medical centers from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2020, using the 119 EMS. The primary outcome was total pre-hospital transportation time; secondary outcomes include activation time, response time, on-scene, and transportation time.
Results
Before COVID-19, the total pre-hospital transportation times for patients admitted to the intensive care unit and patients with out-of-cardiac arrest were 26.78±9.91 minutes and 27.92±8.38 minutes, respectively. Post-COVID-19, the time increased to 35.31±16.30 minutes and 32.46±14.69 minutes, respectively (P<0.001). Furthermore, the total pre-hospital transportation time before and after COVID-19 differed in the critical patient group with Korean Triage and Acuity Scale 1 and 2 (26.58±10.12 minutes vs. 33.93±15.78 minutes). In addition, an increase in the total pre-hospital transportation time was observed after COVID-19 in the emergency and non-emergency patient groups. An increased time interval was also determined for the activation time, response time, on-scene arrival, and transportation time for all patient groups after the COVID-19 pandemic (P<0.001).
Conclusion
COVID-19 has resulted in delays throughout the pre-hospital transportation time, greatly impacting critical patients.

Keyword

Emergency medical service; Transportation; COVID-19