Regional comparisons of hospital switchboard design, performance, and relationship with COVID-19 prevalence and mortality
| Region (number of switchboards) | Switchboard design | Number (% of total) | Time to contact bleep operator (seconds) | Population density* (people/km2) | Community prevalence of COVID-19 (cases per 100,000 regional population†) | Hospital mortality rate (deaths per 1,000,000 regional population†) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England (n=212) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 138 (65.1%) | 85.3±36.3 | 432 | 235.6±54.8 | 22.1±15.1 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 74 (34.9%) | 25.9±35.9 | 249.4±58.8 | 20.0±12.9 | ||
| p | <0.001 | 0.14 | 0.3 | |||
| East of England (n=25) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 19 (76%) | 91.9±36.7 | 326 | 194.7 | 23.5±13.5 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 6 (24%) | 24.5±22.2 | 29.6±10.6 | |||
| p | <0.001 | 0.33 | ||||
| London (n=38) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 29 (76.3%) | 104±32.6 | 5701 | 288.9 | 34.1±20.2 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 9 (23.7%) | 25.6±34.2 | 28.8±18.3 | |||
| p | <0.001 | 0.49 | ||||
| Midlands (n=32) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 21 (65.6%) | 84.2±36.2 | 376 | 203.4 | 19.9±15.8 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 11 (34.4%) | 38.5±52.4 | 18±9.4 | |||
| p | 0.008 | 0.72 | ||||
| North East and Yorkshire (n=35) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 16 (45.7%) | 63.9±34.1 | 341 | 277.9 | 17.1±6.6 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 19 (54.3%) | 21.3±23.4 | 20.1±10 | |||
| p | <0.001 | 0.31 | ||||
| North West (n=33) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 19 (57.6%) | 77.1±39.1 | 520 | 303.7 | 26.4±10.9 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 14 (42.4%) | 33.3±48 | 16.6±14.9 | |||
| p | 0.008 | 0.037 | ||||
| South East (n=27) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 24 (88.9%) | 77.9±38 | 481 | 209.3 | 16.5±7.2 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 3 (11.1%) | 28.5±33.3 | 17.8±2.8 | |||
| p | 0.04 | 0.76 | ||||
| South West (n=22) | Hospital switchboards with infection control message (automated) | 12 (54.5%) | 91.6±29.9 | 236 | 124.5 | 10.7±8.7 |
| Hospital switchboards without infection control message (automated or human) | 10 (45.5%) | 37±35.7 | 10.6±8.5 | |||
| p | <0.001 | 0.97 |
↵*Population data from Office of National Statistics for mid-2019.
↵†Mortality and incidence data taken from https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk on 8 May 2020. p values as per two-tailed unpaired t tests.