Abstract

Context: Pre-hospital care plays a vital role in saving trauma patients. Objectives: This study aims to review studies conducted on the pre-hospital emergency status in Iran. Data Sources: Data were sourced from Iranian electronic databases, including SID, IranMedex, IranDoc, Magiran, and non-Iranian electronic databases, such as Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Google Scholar. In addition, available data and statistics for the country were used. Data Selection: All Persian-language articles published in Iranian scientific journals and related English-language articles published in Iranian and non-Iranian journals indexed on valid sites for September 2005-2014 were systematically reviewed. Data Extraction: To review the selected articles, a data extraction form developed by the researchers as per the study's objective was adopted. The articles were examined under two categories: structure and function of pre-hospital emergency. Results: A total of 19 articles were selected, including six descriptive studies (42), four descriptive-analytical studies (21), five review articles (16), two qualitative studies (10.5), and two interventional (experimental) studies (10.5). In addition, of these, 14 articles (73.5) had been published in the English language. The focus of these selected articles were experts (31.5), bases of emergency medical services (26), injured (16), data reviews (16), and employees (10.5). A majority of the studies (68) investigated pre-hospital emergency functions and 32 reviewed the pre-hospital emergency structure. Conclusions: The number of studies conducted on pre-hospital emergency services in Iran is limited. To promote public health, consideration of prevention areas, processes to provide pre-hospital emergency services, policymaking, foresight, systemic view, comprehensive research programs and roadmaps, and assessments of research needs in pre-hospital emergency seem necessary.