Key performance indicators in pre-hospital response to disasters and mass casualty incidents: a scoping review

The objective of this study was to offer a comprehensive synthesis of the existing Key performance indicators (KPIs) used in the evaluation of the pre-Hospital response to disasters and mass casualty incidents (MCIs).

At the end of December 2022 a scoping review has been performed on PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Medline to identify articles describing the use of KPIs to assess the performance of first responders during the prehospital phase of an MCI (real or simulated). Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, fourteen articles were included in the analysis.

Eleven articles applied indicators in exercises and/or simulations. Two articles proposed new KPIs, and one used KPIs for developing a model for benchmarking pre-Hospital response. All articles analyzed quantitative indicators of time, whereas two studied indicators of structure, of process, and of outcome as well.

The findings from this review emphasize the need for employing common terminology and using uniformed data collection tools, if obtaining standardized evaluation method is the goal to be achieved.