Policy-Relevant Indicators of Urban Emergency Medical Services COVID-19-Patient Encounters.

ABSTRACT: In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of Boston Emergency Medical Services, the City of Boston's municipal ambulance service, had 7,689 encounters with confirmed-positive Boston residents. As COVID-19 virus strains continue to infect residents in Boston and across the country, understanding the correlation between population positivity, EMS encounters, and hospitalizations can inform healthcare response. This study examines urban virus-surveillance indicators that can serve as an early warning of the volume of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) encounters with COVID-19 positive patients and subsequently how EMS encounters with confirmed COVID-19 patients can serve as an early indicator of future hospital-demand surges. With daily data from Boston EMS and three other public

SUBMITTER: Brennan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9628336 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature