Telemedicine may help community hospitals in early treatment of severely injured patients
February 06, 2016
Although all patients in the study group ultimately died, the researchers considered those who succumbed to their injuries in EDs or later in hospital were "potentially salvageable," because they had potential access to life-saving interventions.
Other research shows that care in a designated trauma centre is associated with a 25% lower risk of death among severely injured patients. Ontario has nine designated Level I adult trauma centres, all located in urban areas.
But delivering timely, appropriate trauma care is a challenge in Ontario, where 90 percent of the province is considered rural, says Dr. Nathens. In Ontario, there is no requirement that smaller, more rural hospitals have a trauma team to assist in providing early care to stabilize severely injured patients such that they can survive long enough to benefit from the highest level of trauma care available in trauma centres. Nor do Ontario hospitals require that emergency department staff in these smaller centres have any special training in the treatment of severely injured patients.
St. Michael's is partnering with the Ontario Telemedicine network to evaluate the usefulness of telemedicine in helping community hospitals deliver better early care to severely injured patients.
The new study, entitled "Identifying Targets for Potential Interventions to Reduce Rural Trauma Deaths: A Population-Based Analysis," was and published online last month in the Journal of Trauma.
Source: St. Michael's Hospital