Strategies to handle increased demand in the COVID-19 crisis: A coronavirus EMS support track and a web-based self-triage system.

ConclusionsIn the first month of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic a significant increase in call volume was observed in the 1813 medical helpline compared to 2019. A large number of calls were handled by the additional coronavirus track and diverted away from the regular tracks of the 1813 medical helpline. This likely contributed to mitigating increased call volumes and queue times. The web triage was widely used but no significant correlation was seen with 1813 medical helpline call volume. Other EMS organizations can learn from this to enhance capacity in a future epidemics. PMID: 32870754 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Prehospital Emergency Care - Category: Endocrinology Tags: Prehosp Emerg Care Source Type: research