Operations Model for Trauma Centers: Multiple Case Study

A relevant issue over the past few decades is the care of poly-trauma patients. The literature related to the care of patients suffering from poly-trauma, under the assistance point of view, is sufficiently consolidated concerning to the adoption of best practices. These are usually conducted and disseminated by accrediting organizations (for example, ACS). However, recent research and theoretical shortcomings brought some heterogeneous thoughts concerning operations management and design when trying to enlarge the literature beyond the assistential dimension. Therefore, after a review of the most important operations management and health bases, a conceptual model is proposed in this article which covers the relevant elements of an operation's projects such as: strategy, capacity, human resources, incentive systems, organizational structure and decision-making. This is in order to systematize the current stage of the field, highlighting the differences between recent studies and proposing a set of practices and premises which are necessary for the operationalization of the proposed model.