Patients' use of Danish emergency medical services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a register-based study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During the COVID-19 pandemic, disturbing images of ambulances unable to respond to the demands for prehospital assistance appeared from several parts of the world. In Denmark, however, a notion occurred that the demands for emergency medical assistance declined. The purpose of this study was to compare the patients' use of the Danish Emergency Medical Services (EMS) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we investigated the overall mortality of the ambulance population, the main reason for calling the emergency medical dispatch centre, and the diagnosis assigned to the admitted patients.

Methods

The study was a nationwide registry-based cohort study based on the national prehospital medical records and the Danish National Patient Registry. The prima

SUBMITTER: Lindskou TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11414125 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature