The Role of Non-emergency Ambulance Services in Combating COVID-19

For any country, ambulance services are the most essential public health service. With these services in place, it becomes easier to handle cases of non-emergency or emergency in a timely manner, preventing a lot of deaths and injuries.

Ambulance services played a key role during the recent COVID-19 outbreak. While the pandemic demanded more emergency-related ambulances, one cannot deny the importance of non-emergency ambulance services that reduce the burden of hospitals by managing and treating non-clinical cases.

Through this article, I will try to dive deeper into the role of non-emergency ambulance services in helping regulatory bodies to combat the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

Specialized Transport Services

Non-emergency ambulance services provide various types of specialized transportation services during the pandemic.

• Transporting sick people to hospital and back. This involves transporting an unstable patient who cannot be transferred through other means. For example, patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) or those on ventilators. The ambulance crew would work with the hospital staff to ensure that the patient’s condition can be stabilized before the journey begins, as well as monitor them during the trip to make sure they do not deteriorate during transportation.
• Moving patients with special needs who cannot travel in regular vehicles because of their conditions or disabilities and people who need to be transferred from one medical facility/hospital/clinic, etc. These types of services also help patients to get transferred from one hospital to another in case of referral.

Seamless Communication

Communication is the key to fighting against COVID-19. During the transportation of patients from one place to another, seamless communication between hospital staff and patients’ families is important in understanding the patient’s needs and concerns. It also helps provide them with information about healthcare providers, community resources, and other services available to help them during this difficult time.

The non-emergency ambulance services are integrated with cutting-edge communication systems that help create a frictionless communication environment for every party involved. It assists them in communicating how best to manage each case individually without creating any additional problems for themselves or others involved in helping out those who have been infected by this virus.

Safety Measures

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare bodies ensured every entity in the healthcare infrastructure, including the non-emergency ambulance services, played their part in managing the menace created by the deadly virus.

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, all vehicles used in non-emergency transportation are integrated with an AED (automated external defibrillator) and other required medical equipment like oxygen, suction devices, and a stretcher.
• All personnel working on non-emergency ambulances have received training on how to use the AEDs effectively in case of an emergency. They also got involved in mock drills where they could practice utilizing the AEDs and other medical equipment during an emergency situation.
• Every non-emergency ambulance contains COVID-19 prevention materials like masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers so that you can provide them to patients who come into contact with infected people or others who may have been exposed to COVID-19 virus but do not yet show symptoms of infection.

Consideration of Non-emergency Ambulance Services in Combating COVID-19

Governments across the world have considered non-emergency ambulance services in combating COVID-19. This is because non-emergency ambulance services are an essential part of the health care system and help in combating COVID-19.

The role of the non-emergency ambulance is to provide necessary and timely treatment to victims suffering from illness or injuries that require urgent medical attention but who do not require immediate transport to an acute care facility. In contrast to this, emergency departments (EDs) treat patients with severe symptoms requiring attention immediately.

The trained staff in these ambulances work closely with emergency medical physicians and nurses whenever possible during any calls they respond to since they transfer the patient into EDs when it becomes medically necessary.

Conclusion

These are some of the roles that non-emergency ambulance services can play in combating COVID-19. They may also include specialized transport services and proactive preparation. 

Non-emergency ambulance services work with the main objective of transferring sick patients to a nearby hospital timely so that they can receive the necessary treatment while keeping their life away from the risks.

Moreover, non-emergency ambulance services have been proactive in their approach to combating COVID-19, thereby emerging as a supporting pillar for healthcare bodies. These ambulances are integrated with advanced technology and medical systems that might prove life-saving in the nick of time. Lastly, every kind of ambulance service plays a major role in fulfilling the key objective of healthcare – to deliver exceptional patient care.