Evaluation of time factor of providing emergency medical care for victims of road traffic accidents on the federal highway M-8 “Kholmogory”

Relevance. Road traffic injuries, having the nature of a global epidemic, pose an urgent medical and social problem. Among victims of road traffic accidents, mortality is many times higher than that of victims who were injured under other circumstances. The survival of victims in road accidents depends on the timeliness, quality and capacity of emergency medical care, on the competence of care providers and on the effectiveness of the organization of this type of medical care at the prehospital stage. Intention – to estimate the time of providing emergency medical care for victims on the federal highway M-8 “Kholmogory” on the territory of the Arkhangelsk region. Methodology. The material of the study was a sample of 906 medical records (form 003/y) for victims of the road accidents, who were admitted to hospitals of Arkhangelsk region in the period from 01.01.2012 to 31.12.2018. Registered forms were selected according to the criteria of retrospective full-design documentary observation. Differences between the observation groups were considered statistically significant at level of p < 0.05 as adjusted for multiple comparisons (Bonferroni correction). Results and Discussion . Time factor of emergency medical care on the federal highway M-8 “Kholmogory” in 3 medical districts of the Arkhangelsk region was characterized. The ambulance teams arrived at the place of accident within 20 minutes in 30 (3.3 %) cases, from 21 to 40 minutes – in 345 (38.1 %) cases, from 41 to 60 minutes – in 299 (33 %) cases and over a period of more than 1 hour – in 232 (25.6 %) cases. There was no statistically significant difference in time of providing emergency medical care for victims with isolated, multiple and concomitant traumas. Conclusion . It was shown that in 74.4 % of cases (p < 0.001) ambulance arrived at the site of a road accident earlier than 60 minutes. The largest number of cases of providing emergency medical care exceeding 60 minutes was noted in the Arkhangelsk Medical District – 28.4 % (p < 0.013), and the lowest –in the Severodvinsk Medical District – 18.3 %. In more than a quarter (26 %) of cases the emergency medical care was provided for victims with polytrauma beyond the 60 minutes period, with most of them in the Arkhangelsk Medical District (p = 0.004).