Interdisciplinary emergency room management of trauma patients from the standpoint of coworkers

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to examine whether staff questionnaire evaluation is useful for quality control in the emergency room (ER) setting. Methods. Consecutive anonymous questionnaires (Likert scale 1-5) were filled out by the involved medical staff in all ER trauma cases in a university hospital from July 2002 to December 2003 (analysis of variance, P < 0.05). Results. In 171 ER cases, 844 staff members responded. Main criticisms concerned time management or satisfaction with personal ER training (Likert < 4). Consultants rated the quality of their training significantly higher than younger doctors, two thirds of consultants vs one third of residents having passed an Advanced Trauma and Life Support course (P < 0.001). Depending on responders' professional specialties and whether the situation concerned multiple trauma (injury Severity Score > 15), a significant systematic difference resulted. Conclusion. Our standardized staff questionnaire evaluation was revealed to be a discriminative instrument for quality management of trauma cases in the ER. To confirm these findings, correlation with clinical outcome data and further validation of the method are needed.