Comparing emergency department performance indicators in Trauma centers

Introduction: The Emergency Department has significant role in reducing mortality and accelerating the delivery of emergency services. Emergency performance indicators play an important role in evaluating the performance of emergency department. Therefore, this study focuses on investigating the emergency performance indicators in Trauma Centers of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Method: This was a mixed-method study conducted in 2018. At first, emergency performance indicators were collected in three selected trauma centers during 2014-2017. Second, the reasons for the changes in indicators were reviewed qualitatively during the focus group meetings. Results: According to the result, keeping a medical record for patients without vital signs; calculating the cardiopulmonary resuscitation rate for all traumatic and non-traumatic patients increase the rate of unsuccessful cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Some factors were found to increase triage time, such as the increased number of patients and mass accidents, lack of timely recording at the point of care or connection between the triage system and the Hospital Information System. Conclusion: To improve the quality of emergency department performance, an emergency medical practitioners should be present at the emergency department, and adequate equipment, a triage committee and real-time triage records should be available. Therefore, the managers should follow the required guidelines and procedures to improve the quality of the emergency function and review the indicators.