Factors Affecting the Organization of Emergency Medical Services in Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Epidemic Situation of the Basic Medical Operations Unit, Lamphun Province

Abstract

The situation of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic has affected emergency medical services, which later developed a model standards and guidelines. As a result, the emergency medical unit at all levels are adjusted to prepare and respond to the epidemic situation. This survey research aimed to study the personnel and organizational factors influencing the organization of the emergency medical service system in the situation of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic of the basic medical operations units in Lamphun Province. The samples were 201 emergency medical practitioners in the basic emergency operations units, Lamphun Province, through simple random sampling ased on the Krejcie RV and Morgan DW formula. Data were collected using a questionnaire with a consistency index of 0.97 and a confidence value of 0.97. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and analytical statistics. The results revealed that most of the personnel were males between the ages of 31-40 years old with a bachelor degree or equivalent. They were medical emergency volunteers working in local government organizations with an average of 5 years of experience of work in emergency medicine, and the average workload of 30 hours per week. They received 1 - 5 additional trainings; and their competency and operational skills was at the highest level (mean=4.54, SD=0.46). The organizational factors affecting performance were at a high level (mean=4.19, SD=0.63), which included coordination, reporting, organization planning, command control, organization management, support, communication, information management, personnel management and budget management. The provision of emergency medical services was in accordance with the new standard, mostly at the practical level (mean=4.36, SD=0.54). The personnel and organizational factors had significantly affected the organization of emergency medical services in response to the epidemic situation of coronavirus 2019 (p<0.05). The high influencing factors were communication, organizational management, planning, workload and education (β=0.22, 0.19, 0.14, 0.08 and 0.07, respectively). They were able to explain 48.2% of the results (R2=48.2). Thus, it was recommendation that in organizing emergency medical services, every organization should develop a continuity management plan for the prevention, control and response to crisis situations that could be applied in the event of a disease outbreak, and support knowledge development skills to operators according to the new normal.