Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study

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dc.contributor.authorVanderschuren, Marianne
dc.contributor.authorMcKune, Duncan
dc.coverage.spatialSouth Africaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-30T09:38:08Z
dc.date.available2015-01-30T09:38:08Z
dc.date.issued2015-01-16
dc.date.updated2015-01-24T19:05:09Z
dc.description.abstractBackground: Road Safety is a major cause of death around the world and South Africa has one of the highest road fatality rates. Many measures, engineering and medical, are investigated. However, analysis of the accessibility of emergency care facilities is often overlooked. This paper aims to fill the gap between pre-crash engineering solutions and literature on trauma injuries and emergency care procedures. The focus is on the role that accessibility to emergency care facilities in rural areas plays, given that 50% of the world’s population lives in rural areas, which are often omitted from international research. The Western Cape (a rural province with low population volumes and high volume roads in South Africa) is analysed as an example of access to trauma care in rural areas. Method: It is internationally accepted that the time to emergency care facilities influences the survival chances. However, the international literature still debates the exact time period. In this paper, the ‘Golden Hour’ is used to analyse the accessibility of emergency care facilities in rural areas and establish a geographical analysis method which identifies risk areas. The analysis can be repeated if the international literature debates regarding the exact time period changes. Results: A Geographical Information System (GIS) tool revealed that 53% of the fatalities in the rural parts of the Western Cape occur outside the Golden Hour. In high risk crash areas, the fatality risk is up to nine times higher than the province’s rural average. Conclusions: People in need of trauma care after a road crash are most likely to survive if they receive definitive care timeously. At the time of the study, the rural areas in the Western Cape had 44 Emergency Medical Services stations and 29 medical facilities that can assist to provide definitive (trauma) care. Further optimisation of the facility locations is recommended and research has begun. More advanced geographical modelling is possible when improved data becomes available on the ‘Golden Hour’ theory, differential times for varying injury types or travel speeds of ambulances. This, more advanced, modelling can reduce the road crash burden in rural areas around the world further.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationVanderschuren, M., & McKune, D. (2015). Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study. <i>International Journal of Health Geographics</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12338en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationVanderschuren, Marianne, and Duncan McKune "Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study." <i>International Journal of Health Geographics</i> (2015) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12338en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationVanderschuren, M. and McKune, D (2015). Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study. International Journal of Health Geographics. 14(1):5-en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1476-072Xen_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Vanderschuren, Marianne AU - McKune, Duncan AB - Background: Road Safety is a major cause of death around the world and South Africa has one of the highest road fatality rates. Many measures, engineering and medical, are investigated. However, analysis of the accessibility of emergency care facilities is often overlooked. This paper aims to fill the gap between pre-crash engineering solutions and literature on trauma injuries and emergency care procedures. The focus is on the role that accessibility to emergency care facilities in rural areas plays, given that 50% of the world’s population lives in rural areas, which are often omitted from international research. The Western Cape (a rural province with low population volumes and high volume roads in South Africa) is analysed as an example of access to trauma care in rural areas. Method: It is internationally accepted that the time to emergency care facilities influences the survival chances. However, the international literature still debates the exact time period. In this paper, the ‘Golden Hour’ is used to analyse the accessibility of emergency care facilities in rural areas and establish a geographical analysis method which identifies risk areas. The analysis can be repeated if the international literature debates regarding the exact time period changes. Results: A Geographical Information System (GIS) tool revealed that 53% of the fatalities in the rural parts of the Western Cape occur outside the Golden Hour. In high risk crash areas, the fatality risk is up to nine times higher than the province’s rural average. Conclusions: People in need of trauma care after a road crash are most likely to survive if they receive definitive care timeously. At the time of the study, the rural areas in the Western Cape had 44 Emergency Medical Services stations and 29 medical facilities that can assist to provide definitive (trauma) care. Further optimisation of the facility locations is recommended and research has begun. More advanced geographical modelling is possible when improved data becomes available on the ‘Golden Hour’ theory, differential times for varying injury types or travel speeds of ambulances. This, more advanced, modelling can reduce the road crash burden in rural areas around the world further. DA - 2015-01-16 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1186/1476-072X-14-5 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - International Journal of Health Geographics LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 SM - 1476-072X T1 - Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study TI - Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12338 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/12338
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-14-5
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationVanderschuren M, McKune D. Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study. International Journal of Health Geographics. 2015; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12338.en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066en
dc.publisherBioMed Centralen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Civil Engineeringen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.holderVanderschuren and McKune; licensee BioMed Central.
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.sourceInternational Journal of Health Geographicsen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/
dc.subject.otherRoad Safety Risken_ZA
dc.subject.otherRoad crashesen_ZA
dc.subject.otherGolden Houren_ZA
dc.titleEmergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case studyen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetype
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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