[Determination of early markers of a sanitary event. The example of the heat wave of August 2003 at the Samu 93-centre 15 in France].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to determine, a posteriori, the parameters detecting an event in a French medical emergency dispatching centre (SAMU).


METHODS
Six parameters were retained: total number of medical requests received by the Samu 93-centre 15: the number of decisions to send a mobile intensive care unit (MICU), number of decisions to send a non-medical unit, number of decisions to send a general practitioner and number of deaths observed by the physicians of the MICU. For each parameter, a daily referential was established over the five previous years (1998 to 2002) and compared with the results of August 2003


RESULTS
The number of decisions to send a non-medical unit and the number of decisions to send a general practitioner were unchanged. The number of deaths on the 8th of August observed by the MICU physician should have led to an alert being given: 5.0 deaths for a referential of 1.7 (+ 194%). The number of decisions to send an MICU on the 7th of August should have led to an alert being given: 41 interventions for a referential of 25 (+64%). The number of medical interventions on the 6th of August should have led to an alert being given: 351 interventions for a referential of 299 (+17%).


CONCLUSIONS
The total number of medical interventions treated by the SAMU 93-centre 15 is a the most sensitive and earliest marker of a sanitary event, such as that observed in August 2003 with the heat wave.
Lapostolle
Frédéric
F
Samu 93, EA 3409, Hôpital Avicenne, 1256 route de Stalingrad, 93009 Bobigny, France. frederic.lapostolle@avc.ap-hop-paris.fr
Fleury
Marianne
M
Crocheton
Nicolas
N
Galinski
Michel
M
Cupa
Michel
M
Lapandry
Claude
C
Adnet
Frédéric
F
D004189:Disaster Planning; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D005544:Forecasting; D005602:France; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D011634:Public Health; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012499:Sanitation; D012621:Seasons