Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 MSc Student, Health Information Technology, Health Services Management Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman AND Medical Records Administrator, Shahid Chamran Hospital of Ferdows, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, South Khorasan, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Medical Informatics, Medical Informatics Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: A geographic information system (GIS) can help in locating facilities and medical centers, and in crisis management during accidents. One of the appropriate information sources for using this system is the medical records of victims of traffic accidents. Since these records have not been used in designing GIS until now, the aim of this study was the implementation of a GIS using data from the medical records of injured patients.Methods: In this applied study, the medical records of victims of traffic accidents hospitalized in Chamran Hospital in Ferdows, Iran, from June to November 2014 were reviewed. The GIS was used to identify hot spots of accidents (black spots), and the distribution of injuries and health services in these spots, in terms of urban and suburban accidents.Results: From the total of 470 road accidents, 216 had occurred in urban and 256 in suburban areas. In terms of distribution of injuries, in the urban areas, abdominal injury in Islamiyeh, Iran, and in suburban areas, head and hand injuries in Sarayan, Iran, were the most prevalent. In urban accidents, most injured patients (46.75%) were referred to the emergency ward, and in suburban accidents, most patients (53.93%) were referred to the general surgery ward. The longest time for arriving at the hospital from urban areas was 5 hours for face injuries and 2.8 hours from suburban areas for foot injuries and those with multiple injuries.Conclusion: The medical records of victims of traffic accidents showed that at least 5 other emergency stations are needed. It seems that by establishing more stations the duration of moving injured patients to a hospital could be shortened. Since the distribution of injury type on the roads was determined in the present study, the emergency stations could be equipped with the required personnel and facilities based on injury types.
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