Weather and temporal factors associated with use of emergency medical services

AbstractBackground: Fluctuations in EMS responses can have a substantial impact on the ability of agencies to meet resource needs within an EMS system. We aimed to identify weather characteristics as potentially predictable factors associated with EMS responses.Methods: We reviewed hourly counts of scene responses documented by 24 EMS agencies in Western Pennsylvania from January 1st, 2014 to December 31st, 2017 and compared rates of responses to weather characteristics. Responses to counties nonadjacent to the studied weather reporting station and interfacility/scheduled transports were excluded. We identified the mean temperature, meters visibility, dew point, wind speed, total millimeters of precipitation, and presence of rain or snow in 6-hour windows prior to dispatch, in addition to temporal factors of time of day and weekend versus weekday. Analysis was performed using multivariable linear regression of a negative binomial distribution, reporting incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence inte...