COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented citation for the healthcare system; such that its effects are now started to become obvious. The main aim of this report is to describe the time trends of utilization of prehospital emergency medical system in a region of northern Greece from first confirmed case of the COVID-19 in the country, at 26/02/2020, till the first order for loosing lockdown at 04/05/2020. Use of data retrospectively collected for PEMS usage, in the regional unit of Thessaloniki, Northern Greece 26/02/2020, till the first order for loosing lockdown at 04/05/2020. The area of interest represents a little more than 10% of the total population of Greece. Daily cases of selected categories (suicides, assaults, animal bites, cardiac arrests, and car accidents) were recorded. Comparison with the daily cases in the previous 2 years (2019,2018), for the same period was performed. Continue reading
Prehospital emergency medical services (PEMS) are becoming more and more sophisticated as more point-of–care advanced medical technology is available in the field. Yet, the literature around the subject is limited, as data come mainly from Northern Europe, USA, Canada and New Zealand. The aim of this analysiswas to describe time trends of PEMS activity in a region of northern Greece.Use of data retrospectively collected for PEMS usage, in the regional unit of Thessaloniki, Northern Greece from 2006 to 2015. The area of interest represents a little more than 10% of the total population of Greece.Total utilization of PEMS shows an overall l4.03% decrease over the decade; yet with an increase in the 2 last years.The mean rate of use was 69/1000 inhabitants for ambulance services and 1.5/1000 for medical interventions (MICU).
Continue reading
