In the Netherlands trauma care is neither integrated, nor organized. In 1983, a retrospective evaluation study on hospital trauma care was conducted. The results of this study aroused concern as to the quality of trauma care management in the Netherlands. Because of this, a multicentre evaluation study was recommended. This study was performed between October 1984 and October 1985. The results of this study were presented in this thesis. As no such prospective study had previously been performed in the Netherlands, the aim of the study was two-fold. The first goal was to investigate the available methods and determine which are suitable for evaluating trauma care in the Netherlands. The second goal, and main purpose of this thesis, was to evaluate the trauma care itself. Although a trauma system should integrate prehospital and hospital care, emphasis was placed on the evaluation of hospital trauma care.
Samenvatting