Frequency and Location of Mass Gathering Events in Relation to Emergency Departments: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

<jats:p>IntroductionAs the number of mass gathering events increases, so too does the reliance on tertiary emergency healthcare services. Approximately 1% of event attendees may present to a local emergency department for clinical assessment and/or management. Often, these attendees are transported by ambulance services. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency and location of events held in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. This information may be used by event and health service personnel to further inform event planning such as staffing, equipment and economic considerations when large events in the community occur. MethodsThis descriptive study used data scraping of an established data warehouse to identify events held in the 2017 calendar year by name, type, location (within the state of NSW) and duration. Using Google Maps, the distance and travel time between these events and the nearest emergency department (ED) was determined. Data was analysed using simple descriptive statistics. ResultsOf the 722 events in NSW analysed, 395 were single-day events. The majority of these were concerts (n=284, 39%), followed by festivals (n=259, 36%) and sporting events (n=176, 24%). The average distance and time to arrive at an ED from an event was 15.0 (±35.8) kilometres and 15.4 (±27.2) minutes, respectively. ConclusionExisting literature has highlighted that event attendees are regularly transported to emergency departments from events. This research has demonstrated that events occur frequently with varying vicinity to nearest EDs, with the majority of events occurring near territory care centres. However, there is limited research on the impact on emergency healthcare services resulting from an event.</jats:p>

Social mass gathering events influence emergency medical services call volume

“…Important factors influencing the call rate are the geographic distance between an event venue and adequate healthcare institutions, as well as the number of available EMS units ( 9 ). Long transport times in resource-sparse settings generate a misleadingly low call rate, as ambulance units can generally only respond to one case at a time ( 1 ). Vice versa, short transport intervals and abundant resources can favor high call rates ( 1 ).…”

“…Long transport times in resource-sparse settings generate a misleadingly low call rate, as ambulance units can generally only respond to one case at a time ( 1 ). Vice versa, short transport intervals and abundant resources can favor high call rates ( 1 ). Rhode Island’s EMS network is rather close-meshed and ground-bound travel distances are fairly short.…”

“…The individual risk classes are related to the physical activities performed at the event as well as other factors such as the potential consumption of alcoholic beverages and psychotropic substances (9,13). An important cornerstone of keeping the population safe is the avoidance of the overuse of EMS resources serving a community (1,(14)(15)(16)(17). The implications are manifold and range from routine emergency medical care and infectious disease control at the event venue to the communication between participants, organizers, and healthcare officials (14)(15)(16).…”

“…Mass gathering events are defined as events that could be strenuous for a community’s resources ( 1 ). They can occur in a planned (e.g., concerts, public exhibitions, political marches) or unplanned manner (e.g., natural disasters).…”