Systematic literature review of templates for reporting prehospital major incident medical management

OBJECTIVE To identify and describe the content of templates for reporting prehospital major incident medical management. DESIGN Systematic literature review according to PRISMA guidelines. DATA SOURCES PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Knowledge. Grey literature was also searched. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTED STUDIES Templates published after 1 January 1990 and up to 19 March 2012. Non-English language literature, except Scandinavian; literature without an available abstract; and literature reporting only psychological aspects were excluded. RESULTS The main database search identified 8497 articles, among which 8389 were excluded based on title and abstract. An additional 96 were excluded based on the full-text. The remaining 12 articles were included in the analysis. A total of 107 articles were identified in the grey literature and excluded. The reference lists for the included articles identified five additional articles. A relevant article published after completing the search was also included. In the 18 articles included in the study, 10 different templates or sets of data are described: 2 methodologies for assessing major incident responses, 3 templates intended for reporting from exercises, 2 guidelines for reporting in medical journals, 2 analyses of previous disasters and 1 Utstein-style template. CONCLUSIONS More than one template exists for generating reports. The limitations of the existing templates involve internal and external validity, and none of them have been tested for feasibility in real-life incidents. TRIAL REGISTRATION The review is registered in PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42012002051).