“Assessing the public awareness of the 912 Rwanda prehospital emergency medical service”

Abstract

Background and Objective: Many deaths from acute illness and injury occur outside of hospitals, necessitating the development of prehospital emergency care. In Rwanda, the ambulance service (Service d’Aide Médicale d’Urgence- SAMU) was established in 2007 to address a variety of emergency medicine situations in the out-of-hospital setting with a countrywide phone number, 912. Despite its growth, the understanding and utilization of the program among the general public has been low. This study assessed public awareness of 912 on the Rwanda prehospital emergency medical service in Kigali City, Rwanda.

Methods: Study participants in this prospective, cross-sectional study were adults (≥18 years) who visited the emergency department at The University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) for a medical purpose. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling from March 22rd to April 5th, 2021. Univariate analysis was performed for descriptive statistics. Bivariate analysis was performed using chi-square statistics when appropriate.

Results: A total of 328 participants were surveyed. The majority of the respondents were unaware of prehospital emergency medical services (PHEMS) or ambulance services in Rwanda (n=201, 61.3%). Bivariate analysis showed that the participants’ age, resident location, employment, level of education and type of medical insurance regarding awareness of the ambulance service were significantly associated factors. Among all participants, 223 (67.8%) respondents were not aware of the development of the toll-free number 912 to call in case of an urgent need of an emergency medical service in Rwanda. Lack of information and low knowledge of the emergency care system were the major barriers limiting public use of the prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) in Kigali City, Rwanda.

Conclusion and recommendation: Public awareness of SAMU and the 912-emergency number in Rwanda was low. An effort should be made to make the Rwandan general population aware of this affordable service via initiation of different advertisement campaigns.