SPIs on Trauma Management

Introduction

Trauma management SPIs should estimate the speed and the quality of the post-crash care, both initial and further, in the country. Recognising the importance of the post-care trauma care indicators for road safety programs and for road safety policy-making in general, in 2001 the ETSC could provide only a few examples of such indicators in use in Europe. Typically, national road safety programs do not include an explicit target on improving rescue services and medical care of crash injuries. An exception can be seen in the Swedish national road safety programme for 1995-2000 which included an objective of shorter response times of emergency medical services.

Measurement method

The SPI Manual provides detailed description of data items to be collected and technical information on how to calculate the SPIs on trauma management. To estimate the Trauma Management SPIs, the following information is needed:

1. Total number of EMS stations
2. Number of EMS staff in service (according to categories)
3. Number of EMS transportation units in service (according to categories)
4. The demand for a response time (min)
5. Percentage of EMS responses which meet the demands for response time
6. Average response time of EMS (min)
7. Total number of beds in permanent medical facilities (according to categories).

Besides, general information is required for the country, including population size, road length – total, and road length – outside built-up areas.

Recommendations

Based on the above information, it is recommended to calculate fourteen specific Trauma Management SPIs:

1. EMS stations per 10,000 citizens
2. EMS stations per 100 km length of rural public roads
3. Percentage of physicians out of the total EMS medical staff
4. Percentage of physicians and paramedics out of the total EMS medical staff
5. EMS medical staff per 10,000 citizens
6. Percentage of MICU out of the total EMS units
7. Percentage of BLSU, MICU and helicopters/ planes out of the total EMS units
8. EMS transportation units per 10,000 citizens
9. EMS vehicles per 100 km road length of total public roads
10. - 11. Percentage of EMS responses which meet the demand for response time; accompanied by "The demand for a response time, min"

• Average response time of EMS, min
• Percentage of beds in certified trauma centres and trauma departments of hospitals out of the total
• Number of the total trauma care beds per 10,000 citizens

The Safety Performance Indicators: Theory report described how these 14 SPIs can be further combined into ranks which enable comparison of the levels of trauma care system performance between different countries.