Evaluating trauma management performance in Europe

Abstract

Trauma management (TM) concerned with the medical treatment of injuries resulting from road crashes is considered as the key component in avoiding preventable death and disability, and reducing the severity and suffering caused by the injury. To better understand the concept of TM and to evaluate the level of overall performance of different countries, a hierarchical set of TM indicators is developed and subsequently combined into an overall index. To this end,the exploration of data envelopment analysis (DEA) is carried out, and a multiple layer DEA model is developed to reflect the hierarchical structure of the indicators. Using TM performance indicators related to emergency medical services (EMS) and permanent medical facilities (PMF), the most optimal TM index score is computed for 21 European countries. Furthermore, the weights assigned to the indicators of each layer of the hierarchy are deduced thereby providing insight into the critical aspects of the prevalent TM system. In addition, country groups in accordance with the index score are evaluated and a particular set of benchmark countries is identified for those countries with a relatively poor performance.