Regional trauma system design: critical concepts.

Regional trauma system implementation is proceeding in a number of areas of the United States in response to a demonstrated need for improved trauma care to prevent unnecessary death. The critical questions underlying the design of such systems and the current state of knowledge and opinion regarding each of them have been defined and these provide a framework for system planning. Additional data are badly needed in several areas to provide a more rational basis for system configuration. It is hoped that systems currently being implemented will include appropriate data elements in their trauma registries to answer the remaining questions in succeeding years.