Time-to-treatment for critically ill-polytrauma patients in emergency department

Introduction: Initial management and diagnosis of polytrauma patients is provided in the Emergency Department (ED). The time needed for a trauma patient’s evaluation in the ED is called time-to-treatment and is equal with the patient’s ED length of stay (ED LOS). Purpose: The aim of this study was to estimate polytrauma patients’ time-to-treatment in the ED. Material and Method: The studied population consisted of 53 polytrauma patients aged over 14 years old with Injury Severity Score (ISS) >15 who were transported to the ED of a general hospital in Athens having complete the whole diagnostic procedure in the ED from 26/6/2010 until 6/2/2011. Demographic characteristics, vital signs, types of injuries and their severity (according to ISS and Revised Trauma Score - RTS), diagnostic tests and time intervals for each patient were recorded. Data analysis was performed with the statistical package SPSS ver. 17. Results: The mean age of study participants was 43±20 years; with ISS 23±8. Time interval for their transportation was 59±41 min, while time interval for their diagnosis in ED and their transportation to the appropriate department for further treatment was 372±232 min. Their ED LOS seemed to be affected in 61.9% by the number of medical specialists needed for each patient and the time needed for specialty consulting as well as the time needed for their diagnostic tests. Conclusions: It was concluded that polytrauma patients’ ED LOS, Saturation Pulse Oxygen (SpO2), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), ISS and RTS reflected on their chance of survival.

Author(s): Markopoulou Aikaterini

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