In regions well prepared to handle accident victims, the police, paramedics, and hospital personnel work in close cooperation. Often a helicopter speeds the victim to the trauma center . At the hospital, a trauma team of emergency medicine physicians, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and nurses takes over. They evaluate the patient, do another check of the ABCs, and then proceed with the necessary diagnostic and treatment measures. Studies show that with good trauma systems in place, a city's trauma death rate tends to drop dramatically.
Some communities have no systems at all.
Describe the problems this kind of scattered access creates. Emergency technicians and physicians never know what kind of illness or injury the next patient will have. Newsweek , p. 52-53. Medical World News , p. 32. The Journal of the American Medical Association , p. 2994.