Citation

Stocchetti N, Pagliarini G, Gennari M, Baldi G, Banchini E, Campari M, Bacchi M, Zuccoli P. J. Trauma 1994; 36(3): 401-405.

Affiliation

Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Hospital of Parma-USL, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8145324

Abstract

The quality of a trauma system can be assessed by the rate of preventable deaths. A random selected sample of 110 trauma patients was examined using both clinical and autopsy data. The assessors were asked the following question: If this patient had sustained the accident in front of the hospital in a normal working day, might death have been prevented? Death was found to be unavoidable in 61 cases, in 25 cases death was classified potentially preventable; 11 cases were classified as clearly preventable death. The main failures of treatment were identified as errors and delays during the first phases of in-hospital assessment and care. An improvement in the pre-hospital phase will be almost useless if the quality of the definitive in-hospital management is not addressed.

Language: en