Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Publication Date
1-1-2024
Journal
Annals of Surgery
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of annual trauma patient volume on outcomes for emergency medical services (EMS) agencies.
Background: Regionalization of trauma care saves lives. The underlying concept driving this is a volume-outcome relationship. EMS are the entry point to the trauma system, yet it is unknown if a volume-outcome relationship exists for EMS.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of prospective cohort including 8 trauma centers and 20 EMS air medical and metropolitan ground transport agencies. Patients 18 to 90 years old with injury severity scores ≥9 transported from the scene were included. Patient and agency-level risk-adjusted regression determined the association between EMS agency trauma patient volume and early mortality.
Results: A total of 33,511 were included with a median EMS agency volume of 374 patients annually (interquartile range: 90-580). Each 50-patient increase in EMS agency volume was associated with 5% decreased odds of 6-hour mortality (adjusted odds ratio=0.95; 95% CI: 0.92-0.99, P =0.03) and 3% decreased odds of 24-hour mortality (adjusted odds ratio=0.97; 95% CI: 0.95-0.99, P =0.04). Prespecified subgroup analysis showed EMS agency volume was associated with reduced odds of mortality for patients with prehospital shock, requiring prehospital airway placement, undergoing air medical transport, and those with traumatic brain injury. Agency-level analysis demonstrated that high-volume (>374 patients/year) EMS agencies had a significantly lower risk-standardized 6-hour mortality rate than low-volume (< 374 patients/year) EMS agencies (1.9% vs 4.8%, P < 0.01).
Conclusions: A higher volume of trauma patients transported at the EMS agency level is associated with improved early mortality. Further investigation of this volume-outcome relationship is necessary to leverage quality improvement, benchmarking, and educational initiatives.
Keywords
Humans, Adolescent, Young Adult, Adult, Middle Aged, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Retrospective Studies, Prospective Studies, Emergency Medical Services, Trauma Centers, Hospital Mortality, Injury Severity Score
DOI
10.1097/SLA.0000000000006087
PMID
37638408
PMCID
PMC10840871
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
1-1-2025
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Author MSS
Published Open-Access
yes