QUALITY PROGRAMS ON TRAUMA CARE

Abstract

Trauma is a public health problem of vast proportions. It is the leading cause of death in young people. Researches have shown a significant number of persons dying from preventable injuries. The number of these preventable deaths can decrease by improving the organization and planning for trauma care services. One of the key administrative functions used to strengthen trauma care is quality assurance programs, also known as medical audit or continuous quality improvement. Quality improvement is a continuous method of improving medical care by monitoring the elements of diagnosis, treatment and outcome. The goal of quality improvement is to ensure that trauma centers and trauma systems design processes to systematically monitor, analyze, and improve performance with the ultimate intent of improving patient outcomes. A variety of techniques have been used specifically to develop trauma quality improvement: morbidity and mortality conferences, preventable death studies, institutional registries, guidelines, audit filters, risk adjusted scoring, and outcome measures. In Brazil there is only rudimentary information on mortality due to the lack of systematic programs to collect data and information on trauma. This paper will emphasize the current status of quality improvement methodology to assess the care of injured patients.