Richter Hannah, Schneider Marlieke, Eisenberger Johanna, Jafari Nastaran, Haumann Hannah, Häske David
Center for Public Health and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Center for Quality Management in Emergency Medical Services Baden-Wuerttemberg (SQR-BW), Stuttgart, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2025 Mar 19;13:1543150. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1543150. eCollection 2025.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on healthcare systems worldwide. Emergency medical services (EMS) frequently served as the sole point of contact for individuals in need of assistance or emergency support. This study aimed to map the impact of the pandemic on emergency calls and EMS operations.
A systematic literature search was conducted in the electronic databases Pubmed and Web of Science. A hand search supplemented the search. Published articles in English or German dealing with frequencies, diagnoses, and factors influencing emergency calls and EMS use were included. Studies on cardio-pulmonary resuscitation were not included.
The initial search yielded 3,359 articles, of which 3,187 were screened by title/abstracts, and 120 full-text articles were analyzed. Fifty articles were then included. Fourteen articles reported the number of emergency calls, 30 on the number of EMS operations, and six on both outcomes. The articles were mostly published in 2020 ( = 18) or 2021 ( = 29) and dealt with the situation of EMS during the COVID-19 pandemic in 13 European countries and 11 non-European countries. However, the quantitative data on changes in emergency calls show considerable variation (standard deviation of 31.3% with a mean of 0.0%, minimum: -50.0% to maximum: 121.0%). The quantitative data on changes in EMS operations show a more significant overall decrease (mean: -12.2%, standard deviation: 24.7%, minimum: -72% to maximum: 56%).
The heterogeneity of the studies is considerable; overall, there appears to have been a decline in emergency calls, particularly EMS operations. Clear patterns, e.g., by region, cannot be identified.
The review protocol is registered in the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/8urq9.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行对全球医疗系统产生了前所未有的影响。紧急医疗服务（EMS）常常是需要援助或紧急支持的个人的唯一联系点。本研究旨在梳理大流行对紧急呼叫和EMS运营的影响。
在电子数据库PubMed和科学网中进行了系统的文献检索。手工检索对该检索进行了补充。纳入了以英文或德文发表的、涉及紧急呼叫频率、诊断以及影响紧急呼叫和EMS使用的因素的文章。关于心肺复苏的研究未纳入。
初步检索得到3359篇文章，其中3187篇通过标题/摘要进行了筛选，120篇全文文章进行了分析。随后纳入了50篇文章。14篇文章报告了紧急呼叫数量，30篇报告了EMS运营数量，6篇报告了这两个结果。这些文章大多发表于2020年（n = 18）或2021年（n = 29），涉及13个欧洲国家和11个非欧洲国家在COVID-19大流行期间的EMS情况。然而，关于紧急呼叫变化的定量数据显示出相当大的差异（标准差为31.3%，均值为0.0%，最小值：-50.0%至最大值：121.0%）。关于EMS运营变化的定量数据显示出更显著的总体下降（均值：-12.2%，标准差：24.7%，最小值：-72%至最大值：56%）。
研究的异质性相当大；总体而言，紧急呼叫，尤其是EMS运营似乎有所下降。无法识别出清晰的模式，例如按地区划分的模式。
该综述方案已在开放科学框架中注册：https://osf.io/8urq9 。
