%0 Journal Article
%T Post-crash management of road traffic injury victims in Iran. Stakeholders' views on current barriers and potential facilitators
%A Davoud Khorasani-Zavareh
%A Hamid Khankeh
%A Reza Mohammadi
%A Lucie Laflamme
%A Ali Bikmoradi
%A Bo JA Haglund
%J BMC Emergency Medicine
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-227x-9-8
%X Thirty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical services personnel, police officers, members of Red Crescent, firefighters, public-health professionals, road administrators; some road users and traffic injury victims. A qualitative approach using grounded theory method was employed to analyze the material gathered.The core variable was identified as "poor quality of post crash management". Barriers to effective post-crash management were identified as: involvement of laypeople; lack of coordination; inadequate pre-hospital services; shortcomings in infrastructure. Suggestions for laypeople included: 1) a public education campaign in first aid, the role of the emergency services, cooperation of the public at the crash site, and 2) target-group training for professional drivers, police officers and volunteers involved at the crash scene. An integrated trauma system and infrastructure improvement also is crucial to be considered for effective post-crash management.To sum up, it seems that the involvement of laypeople could be a key factor in making post-crash management more effective. But system improvements are also crucial, including the integration of the trauma system and its development in terms of human resources (staffing and training) and physical resources as well as the infrastructure development.Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a major public health problem, requiring concerted efforts [1], in the fields of both crash prevention and post-crash management (PCM). It is often possible to minimize crash consequences by promptly providing effective pre-hospital services [2-8]. Indeed, each year, many of the 1.2 million lives lost could be saved and much of the ensuing disability suffered by the 50 million injured could be prevented if rapid and competent pre-hospital services were available at the crash scene [1,9]. But, in many countries, few victims receive treatment at the crash scene and fewer still can hope to be transported to hospital by
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-227X/9/8