The comparison of emergency medical service responses to and outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the format of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) management was modified. Therefore, this study compared the response time and survival at the scene of patients with OHCA managed by emergency medical services (EMS) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand. METHODS: This retrospective, observational study used EMS patient care reports to collect data on adult patients with OHCA coded with cardiac arrest. Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was defined as the periods of January 1, 2018–December 31, 2019, and January 1, 2020–December 31, 2021, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 513 and 482 patients were treated for OHCA before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively, showing a decrease of 6% (% change difference =− 6.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] − 4.1, − 8.5). However, the average number of patients treated per week did not differ (4.83 ± 2.49 vs. 4.65 ± 2.06; p value = 0.700). While the mean response times did not significantly differ (11.87 ± 6.31 vs. 12.21 ± 6.50 min; p value = 0.400), the mean on-scene and hospital arrival times were significantly higher during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with before by 6.32 min (95% CI 4.36–8.27; p value < 0.001), and 6.88 min (95% CI 4.55–9.22; p value < 0.001), respectively. Multivariable analysis revealed that patients with OHCA had a 2.27 times higher rate of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) (adjusted odds ratio = 2.27, 95% CI 1.50–3.42, p value < 0.001), and a 0.84 times lower mortality rate (adjusted odds ratio = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.58–1.22, p value = 0.362) during the COVID-19 pandemic period compared with that before the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, there was no significant difference between the response time of patients with OHCA managed by EMS before and during COVID-19 pandemic period; however, markedly longer on-scene and hospital arrival times and higher ROSC rates were observed during the COVID-19 pandemic than those in the period before the pandemic.