ArticleJournal of trauma and injury2026
Impact of the emergency medical services crew size (2 vs. ≥3 personnel) on prehospital performance and survival in severe trauma: a nationwide cohort study in Korea.
Article in Journal of trauma and injury, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTimely and coordinated prehospital interventions are critical to improving outcomes in patients with severe trauma. In Korea, national discussions are underway to expand emergency medical services (EMS) crews from the standard two-person configuration to three, yet nationwide evidence supporting this policy remains limited. This study aimed to evaluate whether EMS crew size (2 vs. ≥3 personnel) is associated with differences in prehospital care performance and survival outcomes among patients with severe trauma, accounting for potential confounding factors, including the COVID-19 period.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of EMS dispatches linked with trauma registry data in Korea from January 2018 to December 2023. Adults (≥18 years) with field-classified severe trauma were included. The main exposure was EMS crew size. Primary outcomes were scene time ≤10 minutes, advanced airway management among unresponsive patients, and intravenous (IV) access in hypotensive patients (systolic blood pressure ≤90 mmHg). The secondary outcome was survival to hospital discharge. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed, and results adjusted for potential confounders are reported.
resultsAmong 78,203 severe trauma patients, 47,594 (60.9%) were treated by ≥3-person crews. After adjustment, larger crews were significantly associated with improved IV access (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-1.66) and higher odds of achieving on-scene time ≤10 minutes (aOR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.05-1.13). Advanced airway management also demonstrated borderline statistical significance (aOR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.00-1.28). Overall survival to hospital discharge was 89.0%. Although survival was slightly higher in the two-person group (89.7% vs. 88.5%, P<0.01), the difference was not significant after adjustment (aOR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.94-1.05).
conclusionsEMS crews of ≥3 members demonstrated improved procedural performance in severe trauma, but no significant survival advantage. System-level investments and further outcome-based research are warranted to optimize crew configurations and resource allocation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.