title: Quality improvement in pre-hospital critical care: increased value through research and publication.
abstract: Pre-hospital critical care is considered to be a complex intervention with a weak evidence base. In quality improvement literature, the value equation has been used to depict the inevitable relationship between resources expenditure and quality. Increased value of pre-hospital critical care involves moving a system from quality assurance to quality improvement. Agreed quality indicators can be integrated in existing quality improvement and complex intervention methodology. A QI system for pre-hospital critical care includes leadership involvement, multi-disciplinary buy-in, data collection infrastructure and long-term commitment. Further, integrating process control with governance systems allows evidence-based change of practice and publishing of results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Research, Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, Drøbak, Norway. marius.rehn@norskluftambulanse.no.
authors.forename: Marius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rehn
authors.forename: Andreas J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Krüger
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D003422:Critical Care / Q000592:standards*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011642:Publications / Q000592:standards*; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000639:trends*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*