TY - JOUR
T1 - Trauma victims
T2 - Field triage guidelines
AU - Hawkins, Michael L.
AU - Treat, Richard C.
AU - Mansberger, Arlie R.
PY - 1987/5
Y1 - 1987/5
N2 - Trauma kills more Americans from age 1 to 34 than all diseases combined. Until recently, trauma care in the United States was delivered in a nonorganized, nonintegrated fashion, with trauma victims being transported to the medical facility closest to the scene of the accident. Many recent studies confirm an unacceptably high incidence-up to 75% in some studies-of preventable deaths in trauma victims treated under the nearest hospital system. This has resulted in the development of specialized trauma centers. The concept of a regional trauma center requires restrictive medical practice in which a limited number of hospitals and physicians provide care for those 5% to 12% of patients who are critically injured. The decision on whether to take a patient to the closest hospital or to the regional trauma center is a form of triage, with far-reaching consequences medically, ethically, and financially, Various triage instruments have been developed to try to identify those patients who would benefit from the resources of a trauma center, and to avoid overcrowding those centers with patients having less serious injuries. These triage tools are based on a combination of mechanism of injury, anatomic criteria, physiologic criteria, and co-morbidity factors.
AB - Trauma kills more Americans from age 1 to 34 than all diseases combined. Until recently, trauma care in the United States was delivered in a nonorganized, nonintegrated fashion, with trauma victims being transported to the medical facility closest to the scene of the accident. Many recent studies confirm an unacceptably high incidence-up to 75% in some studies-of preventable deaths in trauma victims treated under the nearest hospital system. This has resulted in the development of specialized trauma centers. The concept of a regional trauma center requires restrictive medical practice in which a limited number of hospitals and physicians provide care for those 5% to 12% of patients who are critically injured. The decision on whether to take a patient to the closest hospital or to the regional trauma center is a form of triage, with far-reaching consequences medically, ethically, and financially, Various triage instruments have been developed to try to identify those patients who would benefit from the resources of a trauma center, and to avoid overcrowding those centers with patients having less serious injuries. These triage tools are based on a combination of mechanism of injury, anatomic criteria, physiologic criteria, and co-morbidity factors.
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U2 - 10.1097/00007611-198705000-00005
DO - 10.1097/00007611-198705000-00005
M3 - Article
C2 - 3576266
AN - SCOPUS:0023513648
SN - 0038-4348
VL - 80
SP - 562
EP - 565
JO - Southern medical journal
JF - Southern medical journal
IS - 5
ER -