The Lombardy Emergency Medical System Faced with COVID-19: The Impact of Out-of-Hospital Outbreak
Nazzareno Fagoni, Giovanna Perone, Guido Villa, Simone Celi, Paola Bera, Giuseppe Maria Sechi, Claudio Mare, Alberto Zoli, Marco Botteri
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The Lombardy region was among the areas most affected by COVID-19 infection worldwide; the Lombardy Emergency Medical System (EMS) responded immediately to this emergency. We analyzed several critical aspects to understand what occurred in that region. METHODS: , deaths- managed by the EMS in Brescia and Bergamo provinces between March-April 2020 and March-April 2019. Ambulances' waiting time at the hospitals before discharging patients and the patients' severity at emergency department admission were also analyzed. RESULTS: in 2020 than in 2019 and they were younger. CONCLUSIONS: The Lombardy region experienced an unexpected outbreak in an extremely short timeframe and in a limited area. The EMS coped with this pandemic, covering an extremely higher number of requests, with a ten-fold increase in the number of events managed.