(O-E3) Response Rate of Motorcyclist On-call Volunteer First Responders During Routine Times versus a Pandemic: A Retrospective Comparative Study

Objectives: To determine if the response rate of the MOCVFR will be affected by the pandemic resulting in a decreased rate of response, especially for calls that have a higher probability of being Covid-19 related (respiratory calls).

Background: Israel's National Prehospital Emergency Medicine Services' (known as Magen David Adom-MDA) motorcyclist on-call volunteer first responders (MOCVFR) play a vital role in pre-hospital response. These are trained volunteers, mostly emergency medical technicians with some paramedics, who respond by motorcycles mounted with lights and sirens and are equipped for all types of emergencies whether trauma or medical. Their response is critical for time-sensitive diagnoses such as cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and multi-trauma. The Covid-19 pandemic introduced a new kind of risk for all medical crews, including the MOCVFR.

Methods: This is a retrospective comparative study of data collected from the command-and-control database of the MDA National Call Center, comparing January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019 (pre-COVID-19) to January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020 (COVID-19). All data were entered automatically into an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed by SPSS. A weighted analysis was performed to determine individual contributions.

Results: The study included 1,328,553 overall calls- 655,127 in 2019 and 673,426 in 2020. There was a decrease of 6.44% (P < 0.001) in the overall response rate, with a specific decrease of 22.16% (P < 0.01) for respiratory-related calls. The response rate for cardiac arrest calls also showed a decrease of 6.87% (P < 0.01). However, other life-threatening emergencies that are less likely to be Covid-19 related showed an increase in response rate- severe trauma with an increase of 2.6% (P < 0.01) and loss of consciousness with an increase of 2.62% (P < 0.01).

Conclusions: Covid-19 had a major impact on MOCVFR response rate during the first year of the pandemic. The significant drop in response to respiratory calls may point to a fear of the MOCVFR to exposure to the then unknown disease. When planning the response to future wide-scale emergencies or pandemics, the impact on the pre-hospital volunteers needs to be considered and managed accordingly.

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Funding (Optional): None