Does the Institution of a Statewide Trauma System Reduce Preventable Mortality and Yield a Positive Return on Investment for Taxpayers?

Background: In July 2009, Arkansas began to annually fund $20 million for a statewide trauma system (TS). We studied injury deaths both pre-TS (2009) and post-TS (2013 to 2014), with attention to causes of preventive mortality, societal cost of those preventable mortality deaths, and benefit to tax payers of the lives saved.

Study Design: A multi-specialty trauma-expert panel met and reviewed records of 672 decedents (290 pre-TS and 382 post-TS) who met standardized inclusion criteria, were judged potentially salvageable, and were selected by a proportional sampling of the roughly 2,500 annual trauma deaths.

Mathematical modeling to define optimum operating room staffing for pediatric patients in trauma centers.

Background: Adult trauma centers (TCs) in the United States may be verified with an on-call operating room team if the performance improvement program shows no adverse outcome. Using queuing and simulation methodology, this study attempts to add a volume guideline for injured children.

Methods: Data from 63 verified TCs identified demographic factors including specific information regarding the first pediatric trauma-related operation done between 11 pm and 7 am each month for 1 year.

Traumatic brain injury in anticoagulated patients.

Background: Coumadin is widely used in the elderly population. Despite its widespread use, little is known about its effect on the outcome of elderly traumatic brain-injured patients. This study was undertaken to describe the outcomes of such a cohort.