The evaluation of emergency care. Development of a quantitative criterion.

A method based on comparing proportions of immediate and later deaths has been used in a retrospective study of fatal road traffic accidents occurring in North Yorkshire from January 1974 to July 1976. The method enables comparative data to be expressed in terms of a care index based on morbidity distribution as indicated by the ratio of immediate to later deaths. Using this method the general practitioner scheme in operation in North Yorkshire appears to give a higher standard of emergency care than elsewhere in the county.