Quality of Care in an Emergency Department from the Perspective of Traffic Injury Patients

Article Outline

• Purpose
• Design/Setting
• Sample
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusions
• Copyright

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Purpose 

A traffic injury can be a frightening experience. Very few studies have described quality of care in the emergency department (ED) following a traffic injury. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the quality of care in the emergency department from the patient's perspective and identify associations between background characteristics of the patient and quality of care.

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Design/Setting 

This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted at an emergency department of a university hospital in Sweden.

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Sample 

The sample consisted of the following ED patients who were injured in the traffic environment: 200 bicyclists, 199 pedestrians who slipped and/or stumbled without vehicle contact, and 166 car occupants. Patients were 18 to 70 years old.

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Methodology 

A validated short form of the quality of care from the patient's perspective questionnaire (QPP) was completed by patients three weeks after the injury event. The QPP was designed to yield information about background characteristics, medical-technical competence of the caregivers, degree of identity-orientation in the attitudes and actions of the caregivers, social-cultural atmosphere of the organization, and the physical-technical conditions of the care organization. All items evaluated the perceived reality and the subjective importance. Information about age as well as the maximum of abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) were obtained from medical records.

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Results 

Persons with traffic injuries rated their quality of care in the emergency department generally high in both perceived reality and importance. Patients with non-minor injuries rated a more proper treatment though the importance was the same for all patients. Women rated the importance of care higher than men did, indicating that women welcomed a sensitive and proper behavior from caregivers. Multiple regression analyses pointed out that MAIS and age were highly associated with perceived reality and MAIS and gender were highly associated with subjective importance on all dimensions.

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Conclusions 

This study showed that MAIS, age, and gender were associated with perceptions of importance for the quality of care in the emergency department. This indicates that ED staff should take MAIS, age, and gender under consideration in the treatment and care of patients injured in the traffic environment.