Patient perspectives on the promptness and quality of care of road traffic incident victims in Peru: a cross-sectional, active surveillance study [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Road injuries are the second-leading cause of disease and injury Background: in the Andean region of South America. Adequate management of road traffic crash victims is important to prevent and reduce deaths and serious long-term injuries. To evaluate the promptness of health care services provided to Objective: those injured in road traffic incidents (RTIs) and the satisfaction with those services during the pre-hospital and hospital periods. We conducted a cross-sectional study with active surveillance to Methods: recruit participants in emergency departments at eight health care facilities in three Peruvian cities: a large metropolitan city (Lima) and two provincial cities (an urban center in the southern Andes and an urban center in the rainforest region), between August and September 2009. The main outcomes of interest were promptness of care, measured by time between injury and each service offered, as well as patient satisfaction measured by the Service Quality (SERVQUAL) survey. We explored the association between outcomes and city, type of health care facility (HCF), and type of provider. : We recruited 644 adults seeking care for RTIs. This active Results surveillance strategy yielded 34% more events than anticipated, suggesting under-reporting in traditional registries. Median response time between a RTI 1-4 1,2,5-7 8,9