German trade association hospitals in prehospital care. The involvement of emergency physicians and intensive care transport at trauma centres

Background. Treatment obligation in German trade association hospitals is supra-regional and therefore has high relevance for primary rescue missions and inter-hospital transport. The aim of this paper is to provide picture of how these trauma centers are engaged in the physician staffed prehospital emergency service. Methods. We sent a questionnaire to all nine German trade association trauma centers to confirm their involvement in the public emergency medical services. The following parameters were evaluated the kind of vehicle used, the medical field of the emergency physicians, their level of training gender, minimum requirements to join, and the number of alarms in 2005. Results. All trauma centers were engaged in prehospital care. A total of 19 vehicles (min. n=1, max. n=6; mean n=2) were staffed by doctors from these hospitals (n=8 emergency physician vehicles without transport capability, n=1 intensive care vehicle and n=10 rescue helicopters). The rate of board certification in ground rescue services was 59% (23% of these were consultants), 22% were female. The professional fields were 46% surgery, 39% anaesthesia and 15% internal medicine. In helicopter rescue, there were 81% certified specialists (28% consultants), 12% of whom were female. The disciplines involved were 55% trauma surgeons and 45% flight anaesthesists. Conclusions. Trade association trauma centers are strongly involved in public emergency medical services. Surgeons and anaesthesists with a high rate of board certification are most likely to work as prehospital emergency doctors.