Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

April 30, 2020

Emergency Medical Services resource capacity and competency amid COVID-19 in the United States: Preliminary findings from a national survey

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  • Preliminary findings from a national survey in the US suggest that Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers may inadvertently contribute to the COVID-19 transmission. The variety of knowledge of EMS providers on COVID-19 indicates that current pandemic education may be insufficient.
  • Providers may benefit from improved standardization in pandemic response, specifically with regard to clinical symptomatology recognition, origins of disease, a uniformed decontamination protocol, pandemic-specific inventory in-service, and stricter regulations and enforcement on decontamination of personal items, such as stethoscopes.

Ventura et al. (Apr 30, 2020). Emergency Medical Services resource capacity and competency amid COVID-19 in the United States: Preliminary findings from a national survey. Pre-print downloaded Apr 30 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.24.20073296