The impact of ambulance disinfection methodology on 112 emergency health care parameters during the COVID-19 pandemic in Istanbul

INTRODUCTION: The study aims to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the preparation process of the first responder teams in emergency medical services. Ambulance station response times, command and control centers' response times, and case response times are reported and compared with current literature. Research findings elaborate on how the procedures for corrective actions in the disinfection process affected these main parameters in a 24-hour period in prehospital care.
METHODS: The comparison was made for ambulance times, after the transportation of COVID-19 cases, between the March 2020 period when the ambulances were disinfected in five centers in hospital yards and the April 2020 period when the disinfection devices were placed in all ambulances.
RESULTS: The total number of cases per ambulance per day was 10.1 (8.5-11.6) in the March group and 10.8 (8.8-13.2) in the April group (p<0.001). While the number of COVID-19 cases per ambulance per day was 1.7 (1.3-2.1) in the March group, it was 3.2 (2.4-4.1) in the April group. While the ambulance disinfection time per COVID-19 case was 51.9 (27.7-73.0) minutes in the March group, it was 11.0 (6.0-24.1) minutes in the April period (p<0.001).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: During the pandemic process, ambulance disinfection and wearing personal protective clothing prolonged preparation times. In March 2020, ambulances had to travel to common sites for cleaning and disinfection. Changing this procedure to self-cleaning at the ambulances’ own station locations in April 2020, led to a decrease in both the ambulance disinfection time and the ambulance response time, in spite of the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.