Der Unfallchirurg
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The early clinical treatment of severely injured patients of today is based on modern technical resources as well as on refined therapeutic strategies involving a multidisciplinary team. In the meantime the requirements for and expectations towards best major trauma care have both increased considerably. In spite of a decline in mortality after major trauma during the last two decades still clinical deviations from actual treatment guidelines with proven influence on negative outcome are to be found. ⋯ Furthermore, by transferring the QM-system to another trauma center, we were able to show that the effects of the system in major trauma care are reproducible. Besides the internal efforts for quality optimization an external quality assessment comparing the own treatment results with other trauma centers should take place. For this purpose joining a multicentered trauma registry (i.e. the trauma registry of the German Society of Trauma Surgery for the German speaking countries) is recommended.