Demographic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 cases at the 112 Emergency Call Centers in Istanbul

INTRODUCTION: The study aims to present calls received at the 112 Emergency Calls Centers in Istanbul. Algorithms were applied to analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 cases.
METHODS: Incoming calls at the 112 Emergency Call Centers of the European and Anatolian regions of the metropolitan city of Istanbul were assessed. In the retrospective study, the period under investigation was from March 11 to May 1 of 2020.
RESULTS: A total of 35443 patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia were analyzed. The mean age of the patients were found to be 50.6±22.3. Of this total, 16902 (47.7%) cases were female. Ambulance response times for these cases were reported as 10.2 (7.0-16.3) minutes. In terms of clinical symptomatology, 18958 (53.50%) of the cases had fever, 18359 (51.86%) had cough, and 21121 (59.60%) had shortness of breath. The district with the highest number of cases was Gaziosmanpasa with 1256 cases, 42.16 people per square meter.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Prehospital health services is an important link in the chain of survival. Ambulances services act as a bridge between individuals in the community and hospital care services in cases of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, pandemics. The structural establishment of a robust system to meet the incoming demands, the construction of applicable algorithms, building the optimal infrastructure for ambulances in accordance with the population intensity, will both protect the system and serve to raise the quality of health services delivery.