Implementation of a Geographic Information System Using Medical Records of Victims of ‎Traffic Accidents‎

A geographic information system (GIS) can help in locating facilities and medical centers, and in crisis management ýduring accidents. One of the appropriate information sources for using this system is the medical records of victims ýof traffic accidents. Since these records have not been used in designing GIS until now, the aim of this study was the ýimplementation of a GIS using data from the medical records of injured patients.
In this applied study, the medical records of victims of traffic accidents hospitalized in Chamran Hospital in ýFerdows, Iran, from June to November 2014 were reviewed. The GIS was used to identify hot spots of accidents ýý(black spots), and the distribution of injuries and health services in these spots, in terms of urban and suburban ýaccidents.
From the total of 470 road accidents, 216 had occurred in urban and 256 in suburban areas. In terms of distribution ýof injuries, in the urban areas, abdominal injury in Islamiyeh, Iran, and in suburban areas, head and hand injuries ýin Sarayan, Iran, were the most prevalent. In urban accidents, most injured patients (46.75%) were referred to the ýemergency ward, and in suburban accidents, most patients (53.93%) were referred to the general surgery ward. The ýlongest time for arriving at the hospital from urban areas was 5 hours for face injuries and 2.8 hours from suburban ýareas for foot injuries and those with multiple injuries.
The medical records of victims of traffic accidents showed that at least 5 other emergency stations are needed. It ýseems that by establishing more stations the duration of moving injured patients to a hospital could be shortened. ýSince the distribution of injury type on the roads was determined in the present study, the emergency stations could ýbe equipped with the required personnel and facilities based on injury types.