Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1394384
This article is part of the Research Topic Mass Gathering Medicine (Event Medicine): Updates and Advances in 2023-2024 View all articles

Social Mass gathering Events influence Emergency Medical Services Call Volume

Provisionally accepted
Calvin Lukas Kienbacher Calvin Lukas Kienbacher 1,2Harald Herkner Harald Herkner 1*Feven Alemu Feven Alemu 3Jason Rhodes Jason Rhodes 3Norah Al Rasheed Norah Al Rasheed 2,4Ibrahem Aldeghaither Ibrahem Aldeghaither 2,5Esam Barnawi Esam Barnawi 2,6Kenneth A. Williams Kenneth A. Williams 2,3
  • 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 2 Department of Emergency Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
  • 3 Center for Emergency Medical Services, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
  • 4 Department of Emergency Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Department of Emergency Medicine, Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 6 Pediatric Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine Administration, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Prior literature suggests that mass gathering events pose challenges to an emergency medical services (EMS) system. We aimed to investigate whether events influence EMS call rates.This study is a retrospective review of all primary response ambulance calls in Rhode Island (US) between January 1 st , 2018 and August 31 st , 2022. The number of EMS calls per day was taken from the state's EMS registry. Event data was collected using a Google (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA) search. We used separate Poisson regression models with the number of ambulance calls as the dependent and the social event categories sports, agricultural, music events, and public exhibitions as independent variables. All models controlled for the population at risk and the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results are presented as increases or decreases in calls per 100,000 inhabitants from the mean over the study period.The mean number of daily EMS calls was 38±4 per 100,000 inhabitants. EMS encountered significantly more missions on days with music events (+3, 95% CI [2; 3]) and public exhibitions (+2, 95% CI [1; 2]). In contrast, days with agricultural events were associated with fewer calls (-1, 95% CI [-1; 0]). We did not find any effect of sports events on call rates.Increased ambulance call volumes are observed on days with music events and public exhibitions. Days with agricultural events are associated with fewer EMS calls.

    Keywords: Emergency Medical Services, prehospital emergency medicine, mass gathering events, Public Health, weather

    Received: 01 Mar 2024; Accepted: 07 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kienbacher, Herkner, Alemu, Rhodes, Al Rasheed, Aldeghaither, Barnawi and Williams. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Harald Herkner, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.