ABSTRACT
The accuracy of the pre-hospital care has not been evaluated in Iran so that the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of the pre-hospital care performed by Tehran Emergency Service in traumatic patients referred to "Sina Hospital". This prospective study was conducted on traumatic patients referred to emergency department of "Sina hospital" by Tehran Emergency Service from September 2003 to September 2004. The accuracy of the pre-hospital care performed by Tehran Emergency technicians, regarding the patients' general condition was evaluated. The on-call physicians in emergency department of "Sina hospital" were responsible for gathering the data and filling the questionnaires based on their observation and the EMS forms. 994 patients were enrolled in the study. Wound bandage and homeostasis were done correctly in 80% of the cases. Splint was applied correctly in 50% of the patients, while other therapeutic procedures such as collar and spinal bed were not performed among 80% of the cases. IV-line was obtained in 91.2% of the patients, while serum infusion was initiated in only 20% of patients. It is recommended to compile evidence-based protocols for the pre-hospital procedures and train the emergency technicians to follow the rules, in order to improve the efficacy and the accuracy of the pre-hospital care. According to the principal changes recently made in the quality and quantity of the care offered by Iran's Emergency Service, it is necessary to perform a new study to evaluate the present condition and compare the results of these, qualitative and quantitative changes with the current study