Facilitators and barriers to the effective management of major trauma by pre-hospital medical services following road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia - Dataset

Abstract

<p>Emergency medical services (EMS) provide assistance to patients through pre-hospital management and support, including on-site treatment of traumatic injuries arising from road traffic accidents. Saudi Arabia currently has one of the highest road traffic accident-related mortality rates in the world. The Saudi Red Crescent Authority, the main provider of community emergency medical services in Saudi Arabia, is the primary service that delivers pre-hospital trauma assistance to patients injured in a road traffic accident. The goal of this Thesis is to establish information can be used to develop and recommend specialised and specific solutions for adoption by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority to reduce the currently high rate of mortality and morbidity following road traffic accidents. </p><p> While initially conceptualised as a solely qualitative study, a sequential mixed-method approach was ultimately chosen to investigate EMS practice in delivery and management of pre-hospital management arising from road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia. In the first stage, a systematic review of the known research quantum was undertaken, and this information was used to develop the second stage of the project. This next stage involved a purposively-developed survey of 125 Saudi Red Crescent EMS employees using the online Qualtrics software (between 03/2020 to 04/2020), with the knowledge gained from the first stage guiding the development of this survey tool. Then, a retrospective collection of data from EMS patient’ care records (250) and hospital medical records was undertaken, with a focus on outcomes arising from blunt traumatic injury associated with road traffic accidents in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. The time frame set for the study was from 31 December 2017 to 31 December 2018. Finally, stage three of the project involved semi‐structured interviews conducted with ambulance station managers (n = 5) and trauma centre managers (n = 5) between 03/2020 to 04/2020. The data from the previous stages of the research was used to develop the interview guide, and the purpose was to establish the key barriers and impediments to the provision of pre-hospital care from the perspective of EMS management personnel. Thematic analysis was the chosen model for analysis of this qualitative data.</p>