ABSTRACTS
Analysis of Prehospital Emergency Service Demand in Costa RicaAuthor: Andres Cairol MD | Principal Investigation | UNIBE Associate Authors: Carlos Mora, MSc, UTN | Luis Felipe Loaiza, MD, UNIBE | Wendy Morun, MD, UNIBE | Dorian Chaves, Eng, UTN
Introduction The inquiry of the demand for EMS (Emergency Medicine Services) is crucial for the adequate outlining of the human, financial, technical, and material resources essential for emergency care in our country. In Costa Rica, there is presently no comprehensive investigation that permits for the accurate analysis of the resources required to comply with the present and future needs of the society. Emergency System. Methodology: between the years 2019-2024, the 9-1-1 Emergency System recorded a total of 15,587,683 pieces of data related to reported incidents.After a process of unification and examination of the information, it was determined that, during this period, approximately a total of 3,048,991 calls were received.For the analysis, population data by province and canton from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) of Costa Rica were used.The statistical analysis using SPSS software version).Results: the average annual number of service requests is 506,299 calls (SD 13,333), the number of calls increased at 7:00 a.m., with a peak at 10:00 a.m., and decreases at 11:00 p.m.The utilization rate of the 9-1-1 Emergency System at the national level is 9,526.08 per 100,000 residents, with the province that has the highest usage of the services being Guanacaste, with a rate of 10,864.01 per 100,000 residents.The Costa Rican Red Cross responds to 91.84% of reported incidents, being the main provider of prehospital medicine in the country. Of these incidents, in 51.54% of the cases, the user does not require transfer to a medical center.51.54%, 23.19% are transported with low priority, 20.04% with medium priority, and 5.23% with high priority.The information from the cantons was analyzed using Cluster analysis, where cluster 3 showed higher rates of utilization in medical and traumatic emergencies. A very low positive connection was observed between the average number of calls and the Human Development Index, with a very low positive correlation also existing between life span and the utilization rate per 10,000 (p < 0.05). Conclusions \r\r this analysis highlights the need to understand the provision of prehospital medical services, in the planning and timely response of this service, which correlates with the mortality rate of this service.
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