scholarly journals Notes From the Field: Use of Emergency Medical Service Data to Augment COVID-19 Public Health Surveillance in Montgomery County, Maryland, From March to June 2020 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R Sayers ◽  
Scott T Hulse ◽  
Bryant J Webber ◽  
Timothy A Burns ◽  
Anne L Denicoff
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Emergency Department Visits ◽  
Montgomery County ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Service Data

UNSTRUCTURED Epidemiologic and syndromic surveillance metrics traditionally used by public health departments can be enhanced to better predict hospitalization for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In Montgomery County, Maryland, measurements of oxygen saturation (SpO<sub>2</sub>) by pulse oximetry obtained by the emergency medical service (EMS) were added to these traditional metrics to enhance the public health picture for decision makers. During a 78-day period, the rolling 7-day average of the percentage of EMS patients with SpO<sub>2</sub> &lt;94% had a stronger correlation with next-day hospital bed occupancy (Spearman ρ=0.58, 95% CI 0.40-0.71) than either the rolling 7-day average of the percentage of positive tests (ρ=0.55, 95% CI: 0.37-0.69) or the rolling 7-day average of the percentage of emergency department visits for COVID-19–like illness (ρ=0.49, 95% CI: 0.30-0.64). Health departments should consider adding EMS data to augment COVID-19 surveillance and thus improve resource allocation.

scholarly journals Notes From the Field: Use of Emergency Medical Service Data to Augment COVID-19 Public Health Surveillance in Montgomery County, Maryland, From March to June 2020

10.2196/22331 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. e22331 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R Sayers ◽  
Scott T Hulse ◽  
Bryant J Webber ◽  
Timothy A Burns ◽  
Anne L Denicoff
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Emergency Department Visits ◽  
Montgomery County ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Service Data

Epidemiologic and syndromic surveillance metrics traditionally used by public health departments can be enhanced to better predict hospitalization for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In Montgomery County, Maryland, measurements of oxygen saturation (SpO2) by pulse oximetry obtained by the emergency medical service (EMS) were added to these traditional metrics to enhance the public health picture for decision makers. During a 78-day period, the rolling 7-day average of the percentage of EMS patients with SpO2 <94% had a stronger correlation with next-day hospital bed occupancy (Spearman ρ=0.58, 95% CI 0.40-0.71) than either the rolling 7-day average of the percentage of positive tests (ρ=0.55, 95% CI: 0.37-0.69) or the rolling 7-day average of the percentage of emergency department visits for COVID-19–like illness (ρ=0.49, 95% CI: 0.30-0.64). Health departments should consider adding EMS data to augment COVID-19 surveillance and thus improve resource allocation.

scholarly journals A Panel Evaluation of the Changes in the General Public’s Social-Media-Following of United States’ Public Health Departments during COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272199545
Author(s):  
Areej Khokhar ◽  
Aaron Spaulding ◽  
Zuhair Niazi ◽  
Sikander Ailawadhi ◽  
Rami Manochakian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Health Department ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
The Social ◽  
The U.S

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.

scholarly journals Evaluating transport time in emergency medical service via GIS: an observational study of Tokyo

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Tianqi Xia ◽  
Shuzhe Huang ◽  
Xuan Song ◽  
Ruochen Si ◽  
Xiaoya Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Distribution Analysis ◽  
Transportation Time ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Increased Risk

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Emergency medical service (EMS) is one kind of medical services which focuses on providing first-time rescue to victims of sudden and life-threatening emergencies. Since a lot of studies have pointed out a close relation between the increase of cost time before the patient accommodated to the hospital and the increased risk of mortality, a reasonable distribution of EMS facilities can shorten the transportation time from the scene to the hospital and is critical to ensure the quality of the EMS system.</p><p>With the development of geographic information science and technology, GIS provides the visualization and analysis approaches for the distribution of the EMS cases, ambulance cars and hospitals as well as the ability of measuring road network distance, which results in the popularity of research with GIS based analysis approaches in the field of public health and EMS system. Despite of the prosperity in such kind of studies, most of them focused on evaluating EMS system by observational case analysis while paying less attention on the emergency medical resource distribution.</p><p>With the concerns we mentioned above, this research conducts spatial and temporal analysis for evaluating the transportation time via several GIS methods and take the EMS cases in Tokyo 23 wards as a case study. In addition to the observational studies with EMS case data and several spatial and temporal factors, we pay more attention on evaluating the distribution of cases and hospitals from both sides of demand and supplement. In addition, we also check several assumptions that are widely used in accessibility analysis on public health. As far as we know, our work is first research on detailed hospital distribution analysis in Tokyo area based on observations.</p><p>

scholarly journals Comfort Level of Emergency Medical Service Providers in Responding to Weapons of Mass Destruction Events: Impact of Training and Equipment

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Reilly ◽  
David Markenson ◽  
Charles DiMaggio
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Medical Services ◽  
Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Emergency Medical

AbstractBackground:Numerous studies have suggested that emergency medical services (EMS) providers areill-prepared in the areas of training and equipment for response to events due to weapons of mass destruction(WMD) and other public health emergencies (epidemics, etc.).Methods:A nationally representative sample of basic and paramedic EMS providers in the United States wassurveyed to assess whether they had received training in WMD and/or public health emergencies as part of their initial provider training and as continuing medical education within the past 24 months. Providers also were surveyed as to whether their primary EMS agency had the necessary specialty equipment to respond to these specific events.Results:More than half of EMS providers had some training in WMD response. Hands-on training was associated with EMS provider comfort in responding to chemical, biological, and/or radiological events and public health emergencies (odds ratio (OR) = 3.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.1, 3.3). Only 18.1% of providers surveyed indicated that their agencies had the necessary equipment to respond to a WMD event. Emergency medical service providers who only received WMD training reported higher comfort levels than those who had equipment, but no training.Conclusions:Lack of training and education as well as the lack of necessary equipment to respond to WMD events is associated with decreased comfort among emergency medical services providers in responding to chemical, biological, and/or radiological incidents. Better training and access to appropriate equipment may increase provider comfort in responding to these types of incidents.

The Integration of a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service in a Mass Casualty Response System

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenworth M. Jacobs ◽  
Sheryl G. A. Gabram ◽  
Sherry A. Stohler
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
New England ◽  
Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Helicopter Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Mass Casualty ◽  
Care Hospital ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Response Plan

AbstractSince 1985, the state of Connecticut has been served by a hospital-based, advanced life support (ALS) helicopter air medical service. The service is stationed at a 1,000-bed, Level I, trauma center that is responsible for its operation. Connecticut statute requires the hospital to file operations reports with the Office of Emergency Medical Services, which reports to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Operations include response to requests for transportation of severely ill or injured patients from the scene of an incident, and patient transport from one hospital to a higher level, definitive-care hospital.This service also was charged to develop a disaster response plan to be integrated into the overall state plan for disaster responses. The helicopter disaster response involves all six New England states and the three hospital-based emergency medical helicopter programs that operate in the New England states.This approach has allowed for joint planning and multi-agency, simulated drills. The helicopter emergency medical service has responded to 15 simulated emergencies (drills) and seven actual mass casualty incidents from May, 1985 to June, 1989. In Connecticut, the planning process conducted by the Department of Public Health and the Office of State EMS produced a coordinated, multi-jurisdictional, mass-casualty response plan.

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