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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Catharine W. Burt, EdD and Linda McCaig, MPH. National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3311 Toledo Road, Room 3409, Hyattsville, MD 20782, (301) 458-4126, cburt@cdc.gov

Purpose: To estimate the frequency and characteristics of trauma patients transported via ambulance to US hospital emergency departments (ED) and provide a description of emergency services provided during these visits.

Methods: A secondary analysis of data collected in the 2003/04 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) was used to describe trauma patient and visit characteristics. Trauma cases were identified as encounters with any one of three diagnoses in the ICD-9-CM code range of 800-959. There were 19,281 medical records abstractions in the NHAMCS-ED data set indicating a trauma diagnosis. The survey response rate was 86%.

Results: There were 28.5 million trauma cases presenting annually to hospital EDs in 2003/04 of which 4.3 million were transported via air or ground ambulance. On average, there were about 8.1 trauma transports per minute. The average hospital received 2.6 trauma transports per day, but larger-volume EDs received an average of 7.8 transports per day, some of which received as many as 42 per day. The trauma ambulance use rate per capita was 14.9 transports per 1,000 persons. While trauma cases transported via ambulance comprise about 15% of all trauma cases presenting to the ED, they comprise about 27% of the total treatment hours provided to trauma cases and require more intensive services. Top causes of injury and diagnoses are described.

Conclusions: This study, the first of its kind, should help policy-makers model emergency medical service and hospital requirements in the event of terrorism or other tragic occurrences involving large numbers of trauma casualties.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the volume and characteristics of emergency trauma cases arriving via ambulance at hospitals.
• Use national estimates to model capacity parameters for hospitals and EMS staff and equipment.
• Use NHAMCS public use data to make other estimates of emergency department and ambulance utilization for injuries.

Keywords: Data/Surveillance, Emergency Department/Room

Related Web page: www.cdc.gov/nchs/NHAMCS.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered