Quality of medical care. Professional Performance Assessment System
SAMUR-Civil Protection is fully aware of the critical importance that quality holds in its core area of action: urgent and emergency medical care. These interventions demand the highest level of performance from professionals. The speed, severity,
environmental pressure, and potential consequences for patients' health and lives present a significant challenge for both the Service and its personnel.
This is why we place such a strong emphasis on "doing things right the first time", reflecting the great responsibility and commitment we uphold.
Professional Performance Assessment System
Quality of medical care is a top priority, to the extent that the organisational development of the Service has, from the very beginning, progressed in parallel with the creation of its own on-scene Professional Performance Assessment System, which enables a continuous process of evaluation and analysis of interventions and their outcomes.
The two key figures who provide ongoing structure to this system are the Chief Medical Officer on duty and the Chief Nursing Officer on duty, both with extensive and recognised experience within the Service.
Their main working tool is the set of medical care assessment criteria, endorsed by the Ethics Committee of the Spanish Medical Association in 2004.
The primary role of these professionals is to support the medical team, ensuring compliance with the Service’s Medical and Assistance Procedures, while at the same time assessing the performance of their peers. The service ensures its presence in:
· All complex interventions requiring it, whether due to the severity of injuries or the organisational or operational difficulty of the incident.
· A high percentage of Basic Life Support interventions.
Accordingly, deficiencies can be remedied even prior to their occurrence and furthermore it is a source of identification of training needs.
Results
The Performance Assessment System prompts our personnel to attain professional excellence by improving the quality of their services and assists in defining a training programme tailored to real needs.
Furthermore, it ensures that SAMUR-Civil Protection patients will receive comprehensive and up-to-date treatment as per current scientific evidence criteria and with all available means appropriate for his/her case.
Personal interviews are regularly held with each professional and wherein he/she is advised as regards the results of these assessments. In these meeting internal communication is fostered and thereby facilitating the making of suggestions directly. Finally, a report is given with a comparison between the professional’s performance and the overall performance of his/her peers, advising the professional as regards areas of improvement in his/her particular case.
On-scene performance assessments of the three professional groups involved are carried out: medical staff, nursing staff, and emergency medical technicians. Our objective is for at least 88% of professionals to achieve a good or very good performance rating (equal to or greater than 75 out of 100):
| Percentage of professionals with good or excellent medical care performance (≥75 out of 100) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| 95.67% | 96.68% | 94.38% | 95.21% |
Quality in the completion of medical care reports
Another of the Service's quality objectives is the improvement of clinical documentation. All medical reports completed are reviewed daily, in order to identify deficiencies in completion or content which are promptly notified to the professional involved.
On a quarterly basis, using a statistically significant random sample and following pre-determined criteria, the quality of the Basic and Advanced Life Support medical reports is evaluated.
The improvement of clinical documentation, both in form and content, is a continuous objective and our personnel are aware of the legal and professional importance of medical assistance reports, and that these ensure the continuity of medical assistance and external image of our service.