The Impact of In-Event Health Services at Europe's Largest Electronic Dance Music Festival on Ems and Ed in the Host Community.

Publisher: MDPI Country of Publication: Switzerland NLM ID: 101238455 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1660-4601 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 16604601 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Environ Res Public Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Basel : MDPI, c2004-

Music* ; Dancing* ; Emergency Medical Services*; Humans ; Holidays ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Europe

Background: Electronic dance music festivals (EDMF) can cause a significant disruption in the standard operational capacity of emergency medical services (EMS) and hospitals. We determined whether or not the presence of in-event health services (IEHS) can reduce the impact of Europe's largest EDMF on the host community EMS and local emergency departments (EDs).
Methods: We conducted a pre-post analysis of the impact of Europe's largest EDMF in July 2019, in Boom, Belgium, on the host community EMS and local EDs. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, independent t -tests, and χ ² analysis.
Results: Of 400,000 attendees, 12,451 presented to IEHS. Most patients only required in-event first aid, but 120 patients had a potentially life-threatening condition. One hundred fifty-two patients needed to be transported by IEHS to nearby hospitals, resulting in a transport-to-hospital rate of 0.38/1000 attendees. Eighteen patients remained admitted to the hospital for >24 h; one died after arrival in the ED. IEHS limited the overall impact of the MGE on regular EMS and nearby hospitals. No predictive model proved optimal when proposing the optimal number and level of IEHS members.
Conclusions: This study shows that IEHS at this event limited ambulance usage and mitigated the event's impact on regular emergency medical and health services.

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Keywords: electronic dance music festival; emergency department; emergency medical services; event medicine; mass gathering medicine; mass gatherings; mitigation

Date Created: 20230225 Date Completed: 20230228 Latest Revision: 20231117

20231118

PMC9962375

10.3390/ijerph20043207

36833901