Community Hospitals Transfer More Patients To Trauma Centers, Despite Their Own Ability To Treat The Injuries
"We were surprised to discover that a substantial proportion of the patients transferred to our trauma center had only minor skin and soft-tissue injuries, which could have been treated at any community hospital," according to lead author of the study David J. Ciesla, MD, FACS, who currently serves as the director of trauma and surgical care services at Tampa (FL) General Hospital but had been director of trauma services at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC at the time the study was conducted. "A comprehensive effort must be made to develop a regional inclusive trauma system with pre-established transfer guidelines to specify what patients need trauma care and to ensure that the nation's trauma centers can keep pace with the increasing demands being placed on them," he explained.
Trauma systems - regionalized plans for coordination of emergency care based upon proper organization of existing health care resources - are designed to bring the appropriate level of care to an injured patient in the shortest amount of time. Although trauma systems have been shown to substantially reduce injury-related deaths, researchers found that patients located in regions without a formal trauma system are increasingly being transferred to trauma centers for non-medical reasons, such as gender, age, race, and time of day.
Researchers suggest that this trend could be a result of recent changes in the Emergency Medical and Active Labor Treatment Act (EMTALA) that no longer require community hospitals to provide emergency specialty coverage. Furthermore, because emergency specialty coverage is not funded to the same degree as routine specialty care, many physicians view emergency coverage as a threat to their practice and in turn, forego emergency room call. As a result, hospitals are facing ongoing shortage of on-call emergency room physicians and are in the difficult position of having to transfer patients with minor injuries to regional trauma centers for evaluation.
In the JACS study, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study based on institutional trauma registry data for 9,064 patients. Of those patients, 76 percent (n=6,875) arrived directly from the accident scene and 24 percent (n=2,189) were transferred from community hospitals. Although the patients who were transferred from community hospitals were on average more severely injured than those that were not transferred, the majority of these patients (64 percent) had minor injuries; 824 (39 percent) met secondary overtriage criteria, which were defined as an Injury Severity Score of less than 10 (on a scale of 75), not requiring an operation and discharge within 48 hours of arrival at the trauma center. Although this number is less than the 54 percent of patients who arrive directly from the accident scene meeting these criteria, it represents a substantial proportion of transferred patients and accounts for 9 percent of all trauma encounters.
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Article adapted by Start Sanatate from original press release.
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About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 72,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org/.
Source: Sally Garneski
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Comunitatea Spitale Transfer mai mulþi pacienþi Pentru a Trauma Center, în ciuda propriilor Abilitatea de a trata Accidentãri - Community Hospitals Transfer More Patients To Trauma Centers, Despite Their Own Ability To Treat The Injuries - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate