Abstract
Background: The National Ambulance Service (NAS) is at the forefront of Ireland's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As directed in Ireland's National Action Plan, NAS significantly expanded prehospital services, including provision of a novel home and community COVID-19 testing service. Additionally, other health services rely on NAS's capacity to assess, transport and/or treat COVID-19 patients. In a climate of innovation and adaptation, NAS needs to learn from international ambulance services and share experience. Evaluation of the NAS response to COVID-19 is required to facilitate evidence-based planning for subsequent waves or future pandemics, and to identify innovative practice for mainstreaming into routine service provision. Aims: This project aims to provide information networks and evaluation tools that will help NAS meet these requirements. Methods: The first aim will be to produce ambulance-specific research and information updates for NAS. Secondly, an international network of senior ambulance and research personnel will be established ('AMBULANCE+COVID19' network) and a short-survey instrument, the Emergency Medical Services Five Question Survey (EMS-5QS), will be developed. The EMS-5QS will enable AMBULANCE+COVID19 participants to nominate a topic for which they would like to hear about the experience and practice of other ambulance services. Multiple surveys covering a range of topics will be carried out. Finally, an evaluation framework will be developed to enable NAS determine innovations: (1) for reactivation in another wave or new pandemic; (2) to be sustained as part of routine service. The framework will be developed in collaboration with NAS and the Health Service Executive National Quality Improvement Team. The Research Team includes expertise from academia, ambulance services and the National Public Health Emergency Team. Conclusions: Ability to mobilise resources quickly and utilise ready-made international networks will ensure a successful project than can inform future information sharing methodologies and pandemic planning for ambulance services internationally.
Highlights
On March 11th 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic[1]
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was first identified in December 20192
The narrative synthesis will summarise the implications of the results found and either make recommendations for the use or modification of an existing evaluative tool or the construction of a novel tool for use in ambulance services
Summary
Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. About the experience and practice of other ambulance services. An evaluation framework will be developed to enable NAS determine innovations: (1) for reactivation in another wave or new pandemic; (2) to be sustained as part of routine service. The framework will be developed in collaboration with NAS and the Health Service Executive National Quality Improvement Team. The Research Team includes expertise from academia, ambulance services and the National Public Health Emergency Team. Conclusions: Ability to mobilise resources quickly and utilise readymade international networks will ensure a successful project than can inform future information sharing methodologies and pandemic planning for ambulance services internationally. Keywords Emergency Medical Services, Information Dissemination, Health Care Evaluation Mechanisms, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Patient Care Planning. This article is included in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) collection
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