Professional evacuation of persons injured in road accidents in Israel is fast but underused

In a study of the evacuation process of injured people from motor vehicle accidents, 2,206 injured evacuees were interviewed in five emergency rooms in Israel. Of these, only 53% were evacuated professionally (by ambulance or helicopter), and only 75% arrived directly to an emergency room. In a logistic regression analysis, differences were found in relation to regions, type of road (urban vs. interurban), education, and severity of the injury. Higher education was associated with lower percentage of professional evacuation. Of those injured who arrived directly at emergency rooms, 67% did so within an hour (the "golden hour"). We found that professional evacuation was more rapid than nonprofessional evacuation. Language: en